Team News: Chelsea key player returns, but captain and new full back miss out

Chelsea take on Bournemouth at Stamford Bridge this afternoon in the Premier League, and the teams are in!

Chelsea’s team for the game against Bournemouth is in, and there are some interesting decisions from Xabi Alonso.

Emi Martinez plays in goal, despite having played on Wednesday night in Argentina.

At the back, he’s stayed true to his word and put Josh Acheampong into the team. He joins Maxence Lacroix and Levi Colwill in the back line.

Ahead of them, Moises Caicedo makes his first start of the season, playing alongside Jordan Henderson.

Out wide, Pedro Neto and Pep Chavarria keep their places at wing back.

The standard front three are all good to go, with Morgan Rogers and Cole Palmer flanking Joao Pedro.

Chelsea gaining strength – but still not at full power

There are some disappointments – Marco Palestra still doesn’t get a start, while Reece James isn’t on the bench, showing his injury is worse than we had thought.

There’s still more than enough quality out there to win the game, and the return of Caicedo should be huge. There’s a lot more on the bench than there was a few weeks ago. We can’t wait to see what the three weeks of the training ground have meant for this team.

In other news…

Marco Palestra is finally on the bench for Chelsea and could make his debut today – but they’re already looking at another left back from Serie A.

Our predicted team for this game has Alonso picking from a full strength team for the first time as Chelsea boss.