Our team to face Cardiff – what’s yours?
by MATTHEW HARRIS on SEPTEMBER 21, 2013
At the time of writing there’s no official team news from the club regarding the injuries to Mousa Dembele, Danny Rose and Younes Kaboul on Thursday night but as we saw yesterday, Andre Villas-Boas is hopeful that Mousa at least will make the starting XI against Cardiff.
“Dembele should be okay,” AVB said. “He felt a lot of pain when he was brought down, but now he’s steady. Younes felt muscle tightness in his adductor and we decided to take him off. He was struggling but he didn’t rupture anything.
“We have to be a little bit more careful with Danny Rose. We hope it’s not serious. We have to give him one night to see the reaction of his ankle. He is in doubt for Sunday but he should be okay.”
So Rose looks set to miss out and he looks certain to join Aaron Lennon and Etienne Capoue on the sidelines while Nacer Chadli remains doubtful.
With Vlad Chiriches’ work permit finally through, the Romanian could make his debut at centre half with Jan Vertonghen switching to cover for Danny on the left. Alternatively, the right footed Kyle Naughton could also deputise as he has done in the past.
In midfield, Dembele may be fit but Andre will surely be tempted to find room for Sandro after another dominant performance this week.
Further up the park, Gylfi Sigurdsson will keep his place after his double over Norwich so the only question could be Townsend or Lamela? That just leaves the striker which will presumably be Roberto Soldado but does Jermain Defoe deserve a start after his two goal display against Tromso?
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