Chelsea’s line-up against Crystal Palace has made history (Photo: Getty)
Mauricio Pochettino named Chelsea’s youngest Premier League starting XI in history for Wednesday night’s clash against Crystal Palace.
The Blues play the Eagles at Stamford Bridge with both sides desperately needing a win following poor runs of form that have left the London clubs in the bottom half of the table.
Pochettino is potentially fighting to keep his job but his task has been made trickier thanks to a number of injuries and suspensions that have ruled out the likes of Reece James, Enzo Fernandez, Cole Palmer and Raheem Sterling.
As a result, the line-up the manager has selected has made a bit of history: with an average age of just 23 years and 21 days, it’s Chelsea’s youngest Premier League starting XI.
There are five changes from the Christmas Eve loss at Wolves with Thiago Silva, Armando Broja, Lesley Ugochukwu, Palmer and Sterling dropping out.
Taking their place are Moises Caicedo, Benoit Badiashile, Mykhailo Mudryk, Ian Maatsen and, most notably, Christopher Nkunku who makes his first start for the club.
20-year-old Malo Gusto is the youngest member of the XI, while 26-year-old Nkunku is the oldest.
Malo Gusto is the youngest member of Chelsea’s youngest XI (Photo: Getty)
Interestingly, it’s the youngest top-flight XI since Manchester United’s from their win over Palace in May 2017 and the eighth youngest in Premier League history.
The youngest line-up in the league came courtesy of Middlesbrough, with their side that lost to Fulham in May 2006 having an average age of 20 years and five months.
Discussing his youthful side, Pochettino told Amazon Prime: We have a young team! We have to deal with expectations and what it means to play for Chelsea.
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‘In time we’ll find the right balance but at the moment it’s a tough period. But we need to be positive.
‘I think we need to react and increase our level of concentration. We cannot afford to lose this type of game. We trust the players on the pitch and hope we can have a good game.
‘We need to be more clinical and need to be so strong. Today’s a great opportunity to show we can react.’
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