Brentford0 - 0Chelsea

After Thursday's 1-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur and with a trip to Poland to face Legia Warsaw in the Conference League in midweek, Maresca was always likely to make alterations for the short visit to one of their neighbours.

In total, Maresca has made a total of five changes to his first XI, including dropping Cole Palmer and Nicolas Jackson to the substitutes' bench after their recent returns from injury.

Levi Colwill, Marc Cucurella and Pedro Neto have also only been named as replacements with Maresca showing preference to selecting a number of fresh faces.

Reece James returns at right-back, with Malo Gusto instead deputising on the left, while Tosin Adarabioyo has come into the centre of defence.

Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is provided with just his second Premier League start of the season, seemingly alongside Moises Caicedo with Enzo Fernandez being used in a more advanced role.

Noni Madueke makes his first start since the middle of February after recovering from a hamstring injury, while Christopher Nkunku starts down the middle of the attack.

Brentford make two changes

Meanwhile, Thomas Frank has only made two alterations to the Brentford XI that started the 2-1 defeat at Newcastle United on Wednesday night.

Kristoffer Ajer has been restored to the defence in place of Ethan Pinnock. Ajer is seemingly in line to start at right-back with Sepp van den Berg moving inside.

Mikkel Damsgaard is drafted back into the team as a replacement for Vitaly Janelt, who also drops down to the substitutes' bench.

Brentford XI: Flekken; Ajer, van den Berg, Collins, Lewis-Potter; Norgaard, Yarmoliuk, Damsgaard; Schade, Mbuemo, Wissa

Subs: Valdimarsson, Henry, Pinnock, Jensen, Mee, Konak, Janelt, Maghoma, Kayode

Chelsea XI: Sanchez; James, Adarabioyo, Chalobah, Gusto; Caicedo, Dewsbury-Hall; Madueke, Fernandez, Sancho; Nkunku

Subs: Jorgensen, Acheampong, Badiashile, Colwill, Cucurella, Palmer, Neto, George, Jackson

Written by

Darren Plant