Premier League soccer team Chelsea FC unveils team list in the style of Metal Gear Solid's Codec

UK football team Chelsea unveiled the lineup for its latest fixture in an Instagram post inspired by Metal Gear Solid.

The Instagram post (shared via Reddit, below), uploaded as a story ahead of the team's clash with Liverpool last night, imagined the team list as a Codec cutscene, aping the communication system that first appeared in 1998's Metal Gear Solid. Replacing Snake with team captain César Azpilicueta and also featuring a grainy green image of manager Thomas Tuchel, the post reads "Snake, this is how we're lining up." 

Chelsea announced their lineup today in MGS style from r/metalgearsolid

Chelsea went on to beat Liverpool 1-0 in the clash, although sadly it seems unlikely that the MGS-themed announcement had any real bearing on that result.

This is far from the first time that sports teams have leaned on popular video games when communicating with fans, but in the past, posts like this have tended to try and tap into the zeitgeist a little more, targeting titles like Animal Crossing: New Horizons at the height of their popularity. By contrast, it's been more than three years since the last Metal Gear game, the far-from beloved Metal Gear Survive, and significantly longer since the last main-series game, The Phantom Pain, which didn't even feature the Codec, making this a noticeably deep cut.

While it's been more than five years since The Phantom Pain, the game's community is still surprisingly active, with players constantly discovering new details and modders working to recreate older MGS games within Metal Gear Solid V.

If you're a fan of the Metal Gear games, check out our list of the best stealth games for more.