Nicolas Pepe was indeed among the favourites to replace Eden Hazard at Chelsea in 2019! Thankfully, that never happened and the €80m Ivorian continues to disappoint Arsenal fans to this day.
It's been a while since then so let's take a look at what we at Tribuna.com predicted Chelsea's starting XI to look like in the summer of 2019 and how the Blues actually lined up in the 2020/21 Champions League final.
2019
With Hazard to Real Madrid all but confirmed back then, we were suggesting that Pepe will become our new right winger while Callum Hudson-Odoi will operate on the left.
There was little chance for Gonzalo Higuain to continue at Stamford Bridge beyond his six-month loan, so we expected Edinson Cavani or Tammy Abraham to lead Maurizio Sarri's front-three in the 2019/20 campaign.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek, meanwhile, was on the rise at that time so no wonder we expected him to form a midfield trio with Jorginho and N'Golo Kante.
As for Chelsea's back-four, little has changed over the past two seasons with Andreas Christensen, Toni Rudiger and Cesar Azpilicueta still going strong.
2021
Mr Roman Abramovich, however, has managed to transform Chelsea's squad since then way better than we expected.
Instead of the ageing Uruguayan striker and someone who turned out a flop at Arsenal, it were two arguably best German players of today Kai Havertz and Timo Werner alongside academy graduate Mason Mount who led Thomas Tuchel's attack against Manchester City in May.
While Jorginho, Kante, Azpilicueta and Rudiger continue to be the Blues' untouchables, Reece James has managed to establish himself as a first-team regular over the past two seasons.
Edouard Mendy, Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell, in turn, were brought to the Bridge last summer to become pivotal players for Thuchel's team.
Also don't forget about Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic who started the CL final on the bench.
Which players do you expect Chelsea to sign this summer? Let us know in the comments!
