Chelsea team news: Expected 4-3-3 for Sheffield United clash as two stars miss Blades visi

Chelsea will be without the services of two first-team stars for their clash with Sheffield United this evening. The west Londoners will lock horns with the Blades at Stamford Bridge at 17:30pm.

Frank Lampard’s troops will go into the match riding a three-game win streak following consecutive victories over FC Krasnodar, Burnley and Rennes.

The Blues have been scoring goals for fun as of late, bagging ten in their last three outings.

Lampard, however, won’t have his full complement of players available for this evening’s showdown with the Yorkshire club.

USA and Germany internationals Christian Pulisic and Kai Havertz will miss Chelsea’s eighth league outing of the season.

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“With Kai, we must wait until he is symptom-free first of all and then he will have to have a negative test, so at the moment that is not decided, that is not clear.’

The absences of Pulisic and Havertz mean it’s likely Lampard will name the same starting XI that emphatically dealt with Rennes on Wednesday night.

Possible Chelsea starting XI to face Sheffield United (4-3-3): Mendy; James, Zouma, Silva, Chilwell; Kante, Jorginho, Mount; Ziyech, Abraham, Werner

Sheffield United will go into their meeting with the in-form Blues as huge underdogs. Blades chief Wilder is expecting his side’s latest trip to the capital to be a tough one but insists his team won’t go to Stamford Bridge with the sole focus of leaving with a point.

“We are always worried when we don’t get the results but we are doing a lot of things right,” he said. “It’s the ultimate level of football in this country and the fixture list has been a tough one, but if you have seen the performances we feel a result is around the corner.

“I will keep going and believing to the end, we will keep driving the players forward there is nothing in their body language or me speaking to them – they are hurting, they want to win.

“They all understand they can get results in this division, we can do that, we have that in the bag.

“It will be a shock result but as I keep saying this is Man City, Liverpool and Chelsea, no good moaning about the fixture list let’s enjoy it.

“It is another fabulous chance to play against a fantastic football club. The last two games have been difficult in terms of results but encouraging in terms of performances.

“Let’s take the game to them – you know my balance and view is that from my own eyes and a statistical point of view, all our key stats add up and are really good.

“What I am looking at is that we are here to get something from games – we have that ability to do that – we’ve had that over the last two games, all of the games this season, and that’s the hard bit we need to conquer.

“Confidence and belief can change pretty quickly within a game but usually it is a big result and that is what we are after.”