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Team news: Odegaard and Rice start at Chelsea | Team news | News

Martin Odegaard will make his first start for us since the end of August after being selected to captain our side against Chelsea this afternoon.

The Norwegian missed 12 games due to an ankle injury sustained on international duty, but after returning to training this week and playing the final few minutes for Inter Milan on Tuesday, he is considered ready for today’s London derby.

He will line up in midfield alongside Declan Rice, who sat out the San Siro match with a toe injury but has now recovered. Those are the only two changes to the team that tasted defeat in Italy five days ago.

Leandro Trossard and Mikel Merino are relegated to the bench, but Raheem Sterling is unavailable as he cannot feature against his parent club.

Chelsea, meanwhile, have made just one change from their previous Premier League match, which saw them draw 1-1 with Manchester United last weekend, with Marc Cucurella preferred at left-back in place of Reece James.

Enzo Maresca has again named eleven players who were very different to those who started their 8-0 Conference League victory against Noah on Thursday, with the headline news being that Cole Palmer has been cleared to start despite missing training this week, but Jaydon Sancho remains on the injured list.

Setups

Chelsea: Sanchez, Gusto, Fofana, Colwill, Cucurella, Caciedo, Lavia, Madueke, Palmer, Neto, Jackson.
subtitles: Jorgensen, James, Badiashile, Adarabioyo, Veiga, Fernandez, Nkunku, Mudryk, Felix.

Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Timber, Partey, Rice, Odegaard, Saka, Martinelli, Havertz.
subtitles: Neto, Zinchenko, Lewis-Skelly, Kiwior, Jorginho, Merino, Nwaneri, Trossard, Jesus.

Get all the key stats ahead of the match, a guide to Chelsea’s tactical plans, how to watch the match on TV and much more in our match preview

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Preview: Chelsea vs Arsenal

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