Some Chelsea fans have picked Kante-Kovacic combination in the midfield as the Blues face Atletico Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 in Bucharest on Tuesday.

According to weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com, there weren’t any surprises in the lineup as the fans stuck to the 3-4-3, with the likes of the 4-2-3-1 (12%) and 4-3-3 (9%) far behind.

Simlarly, Édouard Mendy continues to not be troubled by Kepa Arrizabalaga (6%).

With Thiago Silva still out, a back three of Toni Rüdiger, Andreas Christensen and César Azpilicueta should work quite well.

Kurt Zouma (46%) returns to the bench. Ben Chilwell is preferred to Marcos Alonso (40%) at wing-back after a poor performance from the latter over the weekend. On the other flank, it’s Reece James who has no competition with Callum Hudson-Odoi playing up front.

The N’Golo Kanté and Mateo Kovačić pivot weren’t at their best as Southampton held Chelsea to a draw on Saturday, but Jorginho (40%) once again misses out, with Billy Gilmour (2%) little more than an afterthought.

Hakim Ziyech (15%) was way off the pace on Saturday and the community reacted accordingly by favouring Mason Mount and Hudson-Odoi ahead of him. Christian Pulisic (38%) and Kai Havertz (25%) are just coming back from injury, and so the voters saw no need to rush them back. Timo Werner leads the line ahead of Tammy Abraham (14%) and Olivier Giroud (38%).

3-4-3 (73%)
Mendy (93%) | Rüdiger (85%), Christensen (66%), Azpilicueta (80%) | Chilwell (57%), Kanté (74%), Kovačić (82%), James (60%) | Hudson-Odoi (63%), Werner (83%), Mount (91%)