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Antonio Conte has preferred a Chelsea backline of Cesar Azpilicueta, Andreas Christensen and Antonio Rudiger of late, and the three centre-backs started all of Chelsea’s last three games.

However, Antonio Conte tweaked his defence to play Crystal Palace today as the Blues boss chose to start Gary Cahill over Rudiger.

Conte admitted the reason for the change in his backline was a little injury to Rudiger.

He said: “On Wednesday he had a little injury but there is the probability to recover to be in contention for the Barcelona game. It’s muscular fatigue, not a sprain. There is the first grade and second grade, his is zero.”