Seventh time lucky for Frank Lampard? The interim Chelsea head coach will take charge of his seventh match this afternoon away at Bournemouth, with the Blues losing their first six with him in the dugout.
At the moment, the squad’s confidence looks at an all-time low. Lampard has the extremely difficult job of trying to lift the spirits following yet another disappointing performance and result away at Arsenal in the week.
There’s not been much time for preparing his players for a completely different, but also difficult, game at Bournemouth. The Cherries have been in superb form recently and look to have escaped a relegation fight. In fact, if they were to win today at the Vitality Stadium, then they would climb above Chelsea in the Premier League table.
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So it’s going to be a tricky challenge for Chelsea once again as they look to play with pride down on the south coast. There could be a host of changes from the side that were beaten in north London on Tuesday night, with Lampard confirming there were no new injury concerns ahead of the game.
Keep Arrizabalaga will remain in goal. Edouard Mendy is back fit and has been on the bench but there are no signs that Lampard will drop the Spaniard for the Senegal international in the remaining matches of the season.
Lampard could be tempted to go for a back-three rather than a four, something they did against Arsenal. The interim Chelsea boss might feel like a three-back will sure things up a bit more and that defensive line could include Benoit Badiashile.
The subject of Badiashile came up in Lampard’s press conference on Friday afternoon and the head coach spoke glowingly about the Frenchman. He kept suggesting he is "very close" to returning to action despite not playing much first-team football since Lampard took charge.
"Yeah, he's very close," Lampard said on Badiashile. "He couldn't play in the Champions League. He played against Brighton which was a difficult match for everybody. He's close. He's in competition with Thiago [Silva], Wesley [Fofana] and Trevoh [Chalobah] in that area of the pitch. He's very close. He's training well."
He could be alongside Wesley Fofana and Thiago Silva, who are probably Chelsea's two strongest centre-backs at the moment. Kalidou Koulibaly remains sidelined with an injury.
As does Reece James, so Ruben Loftus-Cheek could be the man to deputise at right wing-back, a position he has played a number of times this season. Ben Chilwell is expected to be on the left-hand side for the Blues.
We could see a rest for N'Golo Kante. The France international only came back from a long-term injury recently and has played a lot of football of late so there could be scope for Conor Gallagher to come in and partner Enzo Fernandez in the middle of the pitch.
Noni Madueke did really well at the Emirates Stadium in the week, scoring his first Chelsea goal, so he deserves another go from the start down on the south coast. Mykhailo Mudryk started that game on the bench but once again impressed after coming onto the pitch, so perhaps the Ukrainian will finally start for Chelsea, alongside Kai Havertz who could come in for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
Predicted XI (3-4-2-1): Kepa; Fofana, Silva, Badiashile; Loftus-Cheek, Gallagher, Fernandez, Chilwell; Madueke, Mudryk, Havertz.
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