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Football London
Football London
Sport
Adam Newson

Confirmed Chelsea side vs Arsenal: Gallagher, Mount and Sterling start, Koulibaly on the bench

Kalidou Koulibaly has been named among the Chelsea substitutes for tonight's pre-season friendly against Arsenal in Orlando, but Raheem Sterling does start for the first time following his £47.5million move from Man City.

The Camping World Stadium is the venue for Chelsea's final match of their tour of the United States and Thomas Tuchel is expected to increase the workload on a number of his players with the Blues' Premier League campaign kicking off in just two weeks' time against Everton at Goodison Park.

That may see the majority of those in the Chelsea starting XI be given more than 45 minutes against London rivals Arsenal, who have won all four of their pre-season friendlies so far this summer.

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Edouard Mendy, who played the full 90 minutes against Charlotte FC on Wednesday, keeps his place in the Chelsea goal and will be protected by what appears to be a back four of Reece James, Trevoh Chalobah, Thiago Silva and Emerson Palmieri. Koulibaly is among the substitutes.

With Tuchel switching up his system, the make-up of his midfield is very different. Jorginho is likely to be the deepest member of a trio with Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher expected to be used as number eights, which were their roles for much of their time in the Chelsea academy.

Sterling starts once more for the Blues but should be deployed on the right of an attacking trio which also includes Kai Havertz as the number nine and Timo Werner, who should be deployed off the left despite there being question marks over his long-term future at Stamford Bridge.

There is no Levi Colwill in the Chelsea squad due to a slight knock while Ross Barkley also misses out having suffered an injury following Chelsea's win over Club America in Las Vegas

Chelsea: Mendy; James, Chalobah, Thiago Silva, Emerson; Gallagher, Jorginho (c), Mount; Sterling, Havertz, Werner

Chelsea substitutes: Bettinelli, Sharman-Lowe, Alonso, Azpilicueta, Chilwell, Ampadu, Koulibaly, Sarr, Kovacic, Hudson-Odoi, Pulisic, Ziyech, Batshuayi.

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