[Teams] Cardiff City vs Chelsea: Confirmed line-ups

Chelsea will be looking to close-in on the top four with a win over Cardiff City this afternoon. 

Maurizio Sarri has surprisingly left Eden Hazard on the bench with Willian and Pedro supporting Gonzalo Higuain in attack. Olivier Giroud and Callum Hudson-Odoi are also named among the substitutes.

The Chelsea boss has also decided to leave N’Golo Kante out of his starting eleven with Mateo Kovacic and Ross Barkley preferred alongside Jorginho in the middle of the park. Ruben Loftus-Cheek has recovered from a back injury but is named among the subs.

Marcos Alonso keeps his place ahead of Emerson Palmeiri at right-back while Antonio Rudiger, David Luiz and Cesar Azpilicueta make-up the back four with Andreas Christensen on the bench. .

As for Cardiff, Junior Hoilett starts in attack along with Senegalese international forward Oumar Niasse and Victor Camarasa.

Here are the confirmed line-ups:

Cardiff City

Etheridge, Peltier, Bennett, Morrison, Manga, Arter, Murphy, Gunnarsson, Camarasa, Niasse, Hoilett

Subs: Ralls, Zohore, Reid, Bacuna, Mendez-Laing, Harris, Brian Murphy

Chelsea

Kepa, Azpilicueta, Rudiger, Luiz, Alonso, Kovacic, Jorginho, Barkley, Pedro, Higuain, Willian

Subs: Kante, Hazard, Loftus-Cheek, Caballero, Giroud, Hudson-Odoi, Christensen