Mourinho Makes 2 Changes: Predicted Chelsea Starting XI To Face Arsenal

Premier League leaders Chelsea welcome London rivals Arsenal to Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon. Here is the team I think Jose Mourinho will pick:

Goalkeeper: Mourinho has gone with Thibaut Courtois as his No.1 this season so I can’t see him recalling Petr Cech for such a big game.

Defence: Filipe Luis got a rare run-out against Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday but I think we’ll see Cesar Azpilicueta restored to the starting eleven this weekend. Otherwise Mourinho is expected to stick with his usual back four of Branislav Ivanovic, Gary Cahill and John Terry.

Midfield: Cesc Fabregas will face-up against his former side for the first time as a Chelsea player and the Spaniard is expected to once again play next to Nemanja Matic in midfield, with the pair forging an impressive partnership already this season. Ramires is out injured so Mourinho couldn’t even add a bit of steel to his midfield if he wanted to deploy Fabrgeas a little further forward.

Attacker: Mourinho has already confirmed that Diego Costa will start, despite concerns over his ability to play successive games due to a troublesome hamstring problem. Eden Hazard is a cert to start and I think we’ll see Mourinho bring in Willian for his work rate while Oscar should start after producing some fine goal-scoring performances in recent weeks.

See our predicted Arsenal starting XI here

So this is how I think Mourinho will line-up his side against the Gunners:

What do you think of the team? What side would you put out?