The injury list helped a lot.
Ahead of Saturday evening’s meeting of champions Chelsea and high-flying Manchester City, we sat down to identify the best available combined XI between the sides.
Available means that we only picked fit players who weren’t suspended so, before you go moaning about the distinct lack of Sergio Aguero, read this.
We eventually arrived at a 6-5 split in favour of Chelsea and we really couldn’t have been any fairer so we can’t imagine you will come up with even a hint of a complaint. Not even one.
Goalkeeper
Ederson is destined for big things but he remains unproven while Thibaut Courtois has been one of the top two goalkeepers in the Premier League for several years now. No headaches here.
Defence
Kyle Walker has wasted no time in justifying his lofty price tag since swapping Spurs for City in the summer. His marauding runs up the right flank of the Etihad, combined with his precise crossing and underrated defending gave him the edge. Wing back extraordinaire Marcos Alonso has to fill more of a traditional left back role because, in David Luiz’s absence due to suspension, we’ve preferred a central defensive pairing of John Stones and Cesar Azpilicueta rather than a token inclusion of Gary Cahill in a back three.
Midfield
N’Golo Kante was always going to beat Fernandinho, as well as anybody else in world football, to the holding role in the centre of the park while the creativity of both David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne have proven that they’ve got what it takes to unlock any defence.
Forwards
There are few players more terrifying than Eden Hazard when he is sprinting at defenders and while he can be inconsistent at times, he’s world class on his day. Gabriel Jesus will take over the reins from the injured Sergio Aguero and he’s not the worst replacement in the world for the Argentine, who broke his rib in an Amsterdam car crash on Thursday night. Alvaro Morata has flourished since arriving in England and his six goals already this term have made him a banker to lead the hypothetical line.
Here’s what we came up with…
