Predicted Chelsea lineup against Manchester City: Sterling to return; Chilwell in for Cucurella

Raheem Sterling will return to the Chelsea starting lineup against Manchester City in the FA Cup semi-final on Saturday.

Chelsea will aim to reach next month’s FA Cup final when they lock horns with Manchester City at Wembley in the first semi-final on Saturday evening. And Mauricio Pochettino has greeted positive updates on the team news front ahead of his side’s latest fixture.

While Robert Sanchez, Axel Disasi, Enzo Fernandez, and Raheem Sterling face a race against time to be available to take on Manchester City, most of them should be fit enough. However, Reece James, Levi Colwill, Wesley Fofana, Romeo Lavia, Lesley Ugochukwu, and Christopher Nkunku remain on the sidelines.

Pochettino provided a fitness update on Enzo Fernandez during his pre-match press conference. He said, “He has trained really well the last few days and is going to be part of the squad tomorrow.”

The Chelsea manager continued, “We always assess him day by day and we need to protect him because he is a young guy who is important for the present and for the future. The most important thing is he needs to be ready to perform at his best. We don’t want heroes [who play injured], we want players who can perform in their best way to help the team achieve what we want.”

Pochettino also discussed Christopher Nkunku and his potential return date during his presser. He said, “With Nkunku it is about assessing him day by day and in the last few days he has had the possibility to be involved in some part of the training sessions. Now we need to see the reaction of his body and then how he is going to evolve. We hope we can recover him and have him available before the season finishes.”

With Nkunku unavailable, Cole Palmer should reprise the no. 10 role, with Conor Gallagher taking his spot in the double pivot in the middle of the park alongside Moises Caicedo. So, Enzo Fernandez will start on the bench. Meanwhile, Raheem Sterling and Noni Madueke should be the two wide attackers, with Nicolas Jackson leading the line for Chelsea against Manchester City.

As for the defensive unit, Ben Chilwell should return, replacing Marc Cucurella as the left-back. The English international will join Thiago Silva, Trevoh Chalobah, and Malo Gusto in the backline. Finally, there is no looking past Djordje Petrovic between the sticks.

Predicted Chelsea XI: Petrovic; Gusto, Chalobah, Silva, Chilwell; Caicedo, Fernandez; Madueke, Palmer, Sterling; Jackson