Kovacic and Azpilicueta could start in Chelsea clash with West Ham as Frank Lampard reveals reasons for Everton and Wolves defeats
Chelsea host West Ham United at Stamford Bridge as Lampard’s side knee bouncing back to winning ways, thought West Ham come never an easy side. Kovacic and Azpilicueta are expected to be named in Frank Lampard’s eleven tomorrow after James’ scan proving doubtful for the Three Lions’ availability.
David Moyes’ men are just one place and one point below Chelsea in the table this season, and they will certainly fancy their chances of taking three points tomorrow.
But Frank Lampard and his team must bounce back from two defeats in a row, and it will be a test of their characters on Monday night.
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The Blues boss has some decisions to make, one of them could be forced. Reece James is a doubt at the moment due to a knee injury, so Cesar Azpilicueta could star over him at right back.
The game will probably come too soon for Callum Hudson-Odoi and Hakim Ziyech to start, but Hudson-Odoi at least has a good chance of making the bench.
I believe Mateo Kovacic could come in for Kai Havertz after a couple of shaky performances, and perhaps Tammy Abraham gets the nod in attack again.
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Meanwhile, Frank Lampard has analyzed Chelsea’s last two Premier League defeats to Everton and Wolves ahead of game against West Ham United.
The Chelsea boss believes his side dropped intensity against Everton and Wolves as that partly explains why the Blues succumb to loss clash with Carlos Ancelotti and Espirito Santos sides.
When speaking to Chelsea official website, Lampard said, “It’s going to be a big test of the players, a test of myself, because it’s my job first to pick the players up. What I saw of the two games, against Everton and Wolves, it was things we were doing really well before, against Leeds particularly, and everyone says we are in great form and wants to talk us up, and we just dropped a level for two games and got punished.
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“The basic demands of football are high-speed runs, sprints and being competitive, and we dropped our level 15 or 20 per cent, and in the Premier League that happens. So the understanding of it for me is clear.
“The confidence has to remain because we were playing very well, the table’s very tight at the top, we’re much closer to the top than we were last year. So we just need to remind ourselves a little bit of all the great things we were doing before these two games.
“I have to do what I believe in and what we have done this season. The unbeaten run probably coincided with us turning to 4-3-3. I felt it was a way forward for us and it’s bringing out a lot of the strengths in the players. We were doing it very well.
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“There are things within that system I want to do, how we were moving the ball and building our play and pressing. We came off that a little bit. It’s not like we were doing things terribly in my opinion, we were just doing things at 70 per cent.
“For instance, the second goal against Wolves. We were four against two, so you’ve got to make sure you don’t allow the player to turn. It’s counter-pressing situations that against Tottenham we absolutely nailed for 90 minutes. So there are little things and that’s the lesson for the players to have to react in-game and pick up those moments and get them right.
“I just think that with a group that has been together for a long time and maybe suffers some tough moments and failures. Liverpool looked like an absolute machine last year but there would have been moments they went through over those four or so years of Jurgen Klopp where they would have looked at themselves.
“I played in a team that had that, in the early Abramovich years. We didn’t win the league the first year, we came second. The next year we felt a bit stronger, we’d learned a bit more, and I think that is football.”
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