Thomas Tuchel explains Chelsea team selection to face Newcastle United

Thomas Tuchel has delivered his reasoning for his team selection to face Newcastle United in the Premier League.

The Chelsea Head Coach hasn’t been beaten yet since taking over at the end of January. Four wins and a draw in all competitions has seen the Blues come back into top four contention.

And a win against Newcastle United will see them climb into fourth spot. 

And he has made several changes to his that beat Barnsley in Yorkshire on Thursday night, including Kepa Arrizabalaga keeping his place in goal. 

Chelsea XI to face Newcastle United: Kepa; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Rudiger; Hudson-Odoi, Jorginho, Kovacic, Alonso; Mount, Abraham, Werner

Bench: Mendy, Zouma, James, Chilwell, Emerson, Kante, Pulisic, Ziyech, Giroud

On the team selection, Tuchel said: “We need a strong Kepa in our squad.

“He had a good game in the cup so we decided to give him another match to build up a little bit of rhythm and confidence and to trust him because he did very good.

“At the same time, we can give Edou the chance to mentally recover because it’s a demanding position mentally and concentration-wise so with one decision we have both advantages.”

Abraham also leads the line – Tuchel added: “We need strikers and goals. Tammy delivered [against Barnsley] and today we think there’s not such a high chance to drop from the number nine because they have a single six in front of their back four.

“The space for a number 10 is not so open normally so we opted for Tammy. He’s in good shape, he scored and he’s the guy to break the last line.”

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