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Premier League leaders Chelsea get their 2017 underway with a visit to White Hart Lane.
The Blues beat Stoke 4-2 on Saturday to extend their winning run to 13 matches. Gary Cahill opened the scoring for Chelsea before Willian scored a brace. Diego Costa sealed the victory with his 14th Premier League goal of the season.
A win for Chelsea would see them equal Arsenal’s all-time consecutive wins record of 14 matches.
Standing in their way will be a resilient Tottenham side, who themselves have top four aspirations.
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Spurs have won both of their last two matches 4-1 away from home. Dele Alli and Harry Kane both scored braces in the New Year’s Day win at Watford.
Mauricio Pochettino’s side are currently on a run of four straight Premier League wins.
Chelsea won the reverse fixture 2-1 back in November. Goals from Pedro Rodriguez and Victor Moses cancelled out Christian Eriksen’s opener.
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Erik Lamela is Spurs’ only injury concern.
Kyle Walker and Jan Vertonghen will both return after missing the win at Watford through suspension.
Moussa Dembele was given New Year’s Day off and is likely to come back into the side.
Marcos Alonso is a slight doubt for Chelsea with an ankle problem. The wing-back will face a late fitness test ahead of Tuesday’s clash.
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John Terry has a chance of returning to the Blues’ squad.
Prediction
Tottenham 1-2 Chelsea
Has Antonio Conte Identified Oscar’s Replacement With This Player?
According to various reports Chelsea have opened talks with Carlo Ancelotti and Bayern Munich over the signing of Arturo Vidal for a fee of around £34-£40m as Oscar’s replacement.
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The rumour mill has moved into full swing after the player himself “liked” an Instagram post by another Chelsea site taking about the potential move and it will be interesting to see what happens this month as Antonio Conte looks to sign a replacement for Oscar in our midfield.
As I have been saying on here in recent weeks, the replacement for the departed Brazilian will not be someone of the same style, it will be someone who is able to play as part of the two central midfielders in Conte’s new 3-4-3 formation and someone who will provide competition for places against Nemanja Matic and N’Golo Kante.
Vidal played under Conte for three seasons having been signed by Juventus in 2011 and has openly spoken of his admiration for his old manager when asked of a possible move. He said:
“I have also said if I go to war I would take Conte with me. We will see what happens.”
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Antonio Conte recently spoke of the fact that he has transfer funds to spend after the sale of Oscar, but re-iterated that it must be on someone who would fit into our system. He said:
“For sure, we sold Oscar and we have money to spend but it is important to spend money in the right way. To spend money just to spend money, I don’t like this.
I prefer to buy players who can adapt to our system and come in to our team. It is not easy in this window to find this type of player. With the club we are working on this aspect.” – Source: The Mirror.
Vidal is a tenacious, hard-working midfielder and would fit into our system with ease. As we have seen with Juventus and now with Bayern Munich, he loves a tackle and has endless energy, the only downside is his theatrical nature which if he does come, should be dealt with because it will not fit in here in the Premier League.
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If you think of that fact that we were linked with Radja Nainggolan last summer for a fee of around £50m, this potential signing in my view would be a better deal.
As a Chelsea fan reading this, what do you think of the rumour and a potential move?
Charly Musonda will spend rest of season either at Chelsea or at Roma — report
Charly Musonda, whose loan was terminated with Real Betis at the start of the winter transfer window — though he himself had been back longer than that to rehabilitate an injury and train with the rest of the first-team — has recently been linked with a loan move to AS Roma for the second half of the season (as a potential replacement for Mohamed Salah, who’s off to the Africa Cup of Nations for the next month).
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Other stories have claimed that Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte wants to take a good look at the 20-year-old in January and possibly keep him around for the rest of the season. Chelsea do have at least one FA Cup game coming up, but if Musonda plays in it, he will not be able to play for any other team the rest of the season due to FIFA transfer rules (can only play for two clubs in the same season).
Both of these possibilities have now been confirmed by Charly Jr’s father, former Zambian international Charles Musonda, though it would appear that the two options rumored are the only two options on the table.
Musonda Sr: "Conte 'll have the final say. Charly gets the chance to prove himself in training. A return to Belgium is not an option." (HLN)
— Kristof Terreur <img src="https://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/2.2.1/72x72/1f4f0.png" alt="