{"id":243603,"date":"2026-05-15T19:15:41","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T19:15:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/james-and-neto-return-predicted-chelsea-xi-vs-manchester-city\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T19:15:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T19:15:41","slug":"james-and-neto-return-predicted-chelsea-xi-vs-manchester-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/15\/james-and-neto-return-predicted-chelsea-xi-vs-manchester-city\/","title":{"rendered":"James and Neto return: Predicted Chelsea XI vs Manchester City"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"mvp-content-main\" itemprop=\"articleBody\">\n<p><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/topics\/chelsea\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"3\" title=\"Chelsea news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Chelsea<\/a> have a chance to end a rather disappointing season on a high as they take on <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/topics\/man-city-news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"6\" title=\"Man City news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Manchester City<\/a> tomorrow at 15:00 local time in the <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/tag\/fa-cup\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"22\" title=\"FA Cup\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">FA Cup<\/a> final at Wembley Stadium, eyeing a prestigious piece of silverware.<\/p>\n<p>The Blues will not play in the <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/tag\/champions-league\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"20\" title=\"Champions League\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Champions League<\/a> next year but by winning the domestic cup, they would at least rubber stamp their place in the <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/tag\/europa-league\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"23\" title=\"Europa League\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Europa League<\/a> next season, and here is how their playing eleven is expected to look like.<\/p>\n<div class=\"kvdau6a0770e181fa6\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rememore.com\/hair-transplant-in-turkey#utm_source=footbal-talk&amp;utm_id=footbal-talk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-225247\" src=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/FootballTalk_New_Chapter-rememore.png\" alt=\"Rememore new hair\" width=\"400\" height=\"333\"\/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><strong>Goalkeeper<\/strong> \u2013 With Robert Sanchez still injured, it is expected for Filip Jorgensen to get the nod in between the sticks.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Defenders<\/strong> \u2013 Malo Gusto is expected to play at right back once again having done decently in the position for much of the campaign, while Jorrel Hato could drop out of the team and Marc Cucurella, who played an advanced role versus <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/topics\/liverpool\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"Liverpool news\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Liverpool<\/a> last time, might drop deeper to feature as the left back.<\/p>\n<p>Wesley Fofana and Levi Colwill might round off the back four for the Londoners.<\/p>\n<h2>James in midfield, Neto also starts<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Midfielders<\/strong> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/tag\/reece-james\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"36\" title=\"Reece James\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Reece James<\/a> has come good as a midfielder in the ongoing campaign and is expected to play in a double pivot once more, partnering with Moises Caicedo. Enzo Fernandez, on the other hand, could be the attacking midfielder.<\/p>\n<p>Cole Palmer is likely to continue as the right winger with Estevao Willian injured, while Pedro Neto might come in on the left flank having missed last weekend\u2019s fixture due to a knock.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Forward<\/strong> \u2013 Joao Pedro is likely to be the lone striker for Chelsea.<\/p>\n<p>Here is how the Blues\u2019 team is expected to look on paper.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.fotmob.com\/api\/data\/lineup-builder\/team?players=1200984:Filip%20J%C3%B6rgensen,1197250:Malo%20Gusto,917802:Wesley%20Fofana,1096400:Levi%20Colwill,873289:Marc%20Cucurella,807729:Reece%20James,1137668:Mois%C3%A9s%20Caicedo,1096353:Cole%20Palmer,1137705:Enzo%20Fern%C3%A1ndez,843040:Pedro%20Neto,1021382:Jo%C3%A3o%20Pedro&amp;formation=4-2-3-1&amp;teamId=8455&amp;showTeamBadges=false&amp;showCountryBadges=false&amp;lang=en&amp;currency=EUR&amp;measurementSystem=metric\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!--mvp-post-tags--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!--posts-nav-link--><\/p>\n<div class=\"mvp-org-wrap\" itemprop=\"publisher\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/Organization\">\n<div class=\"mvp-org-logo\" itemprop=\"logo\" itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/ImageObject\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"250\" height=\"50\" src=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/new-logo.png\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"url\" content=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/04\/new-logo.png\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-org-logo--><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<meta itemprop=\"name\" content=\"Football Talk | Premier League News\"\/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><!--mvp-org-wrap-->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/football-talk.co.uk\/232667\/james-and-neto-return-predicted-chelsea-xi-vs-manchester-city\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chelsea have a chance to end a rather disappointing season on a high as they take on Manchester City tomorrow at 15:00 local time in the FA Cup final at Wembley Stadium, eyeing a prestigious piece of silverware. The Blues will not play in the Champions League next year but by winning the domestic cup, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":243604,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6807],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-243603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues-cups"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}