Ahead of the Southampton vs Chelsea match tonight, fans think they have deciphered that Christopher Nkunku will make the Chelsea lineup.
Southampton will go into the Chelsea game with plenty of injuries and suspensions. In fact, it is a hard task putting together a Southampton lineup, considering there are a minimum of ten players missing through injuries or suspensions, perhaps even more.
However, despite having an inflated squad and Enzo Maresca still being relatively new to his role, fans think they have an easier time putting together the Chelsea lineup. Or at least, they have predicted that one player will start.
Ahead of the Southampton match, the official Chelsea social media posted a pre-match graphic to X (formerly Twitter). The graphic featured Christopher Nkunku as the only player, which often indicates he will be involved in the starting lineup.
It isn’t a dead-cert that Nkunku will make the Chelsea lineup based on the pre-match graphic. However, the graphics have become increasingly important over the last few years and there is more often than not a correlation between the graphics and the starting lineup.
Fans in the replies are referring to Nkunku being chosen as the centrepiece. https://twitter.com/David___Peters/status/1864225076972756993 said “Let’s even see Nkunku play 90 mins in the EPL. Maresca won’t bench him again. Trust me”, while another fan said “That’s what I’m talking about! Maresca hears us! Nkunku starts tonight right?”
If fans are right and Christopher Nkunku does start this match, it would only be his second Premier League start of the season. However, he has come off the bench 11 times in the league.
Nkunku often plays as part of a strike partnership. This might be Enzo Maresca, who obviously has a good knowledge of Russell Martin and how he sets up, preparing to face Southampton’s low block of three central defenders. Therefore, it makes sense that Nkunku would start for the Blues.
Nkunku is not an out-and-out striker, despite playing in this position. If he partners Nicolas Jackson, which is more than plausible, it will be Nkunku who drops deeper to pick up the ball and carry it into attack. Therefore, Martin should pick a defender to man-mark the French attacker.
