Chennaiyin looks for a positive start to 2018

The home side secured three valuable away points from its previous clash against Jamshedpur FC despite a shoddy effort on the field. 

Regular skipper Henrique Sereno will miss the match as a result of accumulating four yellow cards in the league games thus far. This forces CFC head coach John Gregory to reshuffle his personnel on the back line with a few of them warming the bench since the season opener. 

The team will be without the services of Gregory on the touchline as he will serve a three-match ban for confronting with the match officials over a controversial decision in the first half in the JFC game. 

Raphael Augusto, who did not even feature in the match-day squad against JFC, has been a pale shadow of his former self in front of the goal. The Brazilian midfielder has failed to get on the scoresheet for over a month, his last goal coming against NorthEast United FC on November 23. 

Despite scoring the winner at Jamshedpur, striker Jeje Lalpekhlua has been less than threatening in the final third after he misfired a few shots from close range. 

CFC will bank on the craftsmanship of its creative midfielders, with Rene Mihelic or Jaime Gavilan likely to feature in the starting line-up. With the unavailability of Sereno in the defensive territory, coach Gregory could be tempted to feature both the foreigners in a four-pronged midfield attack. 

The tie also marks the much-awaited clash between two local lads belonging to Vyasarpadi in Chennai - Dhanpal Ganesh and Nandakumar. The former has featured in most of the games while the latter has been used sparingly by DDFC’S manager Miguel Angel Portugal.

Delhi Dynamos FC has had a miserable campaign thus far, placed at the rock bottom of the table with just three points from its seven games. But one statistic it can take comfort from is that it holds the upper hand over CFC in the previous editions of ISL, winning four and sharing the spoils in one. The last match between these two at the ‘Marina Arena’ saw five strikes enter the back of the net with current FC Pune City forward Marcelinho bagging a brace for the visitor. 

This season, however, the Dynamos’ defence has been dreadful, leaking a whopping 19 goals with a woeful goal difference of -14. The team from the ‘Capital city’ also holds the third-worst record in terms of goal scoring, with Nigerian international Kalu Uche scoring two of its five. It will have to buckle up soon to have any chance of giving a crack at the top four.