Confirmed Chelsea starting XI vs Tottenham: one change from Aston Villa game and 20-year-old starts

Mauricio Pochettino will make history if he can lead Chelsea to win against Tottenham tonight. The Argentinian will become only the first manager in history to manage Spurs and also do the double over them as an opposition manager in the league. 

The odds are in his favour with Spurs having just one win in their last 38 visits to Stamford Bridge in all competitions. The Blues have suffered double injury blows heading into the game with Axel Disasi and Thiago Silva adding to a long list that already has Reece James and Christopher Nkunku on it. 

Fourteen players in total will be missing the game for the Blues tonight which has forced Pochettino to fill up the bench with academy players. Spurs have their one injury issue with left-backs Destiny Udigie and Ben Davies all ruled out of what is left of the campaign. 

Pochettino though knows that there will be little room for sympathy if he can not get all three points against a Tottenham side that has lost its last two games including a home defeat to rivals Arsenal over the weekend. 

Chelsea will be missing 14 players including Thiago Silva who announced he’s be leaving the club in the summer after joining four years ago and helping the team win the Champions League. 

Axel Disasi who suffered only two injuries his entire career before joining Chelsea has suffered two in the last two weeks and will also miss this one. Christopher Nkunku and Romeo Lavia are back in training even though this game comes too soon for them. 

Chelsea starting XI 

So with half of the team out, this is the team Pochettino has named for the vital game tonight. Petrovic, Chalobah, Badiahsile, Badiashile, Cucurella, Gilchrist, Gallagher, Caicedo, Palmer, Mudryk, Madueke and Jackson.