Chelsea's disastrous end of season form continued on Wednesday night as they fell to a 2-0 home defeat to Brentford. The loss was their sixth of the season at Stamford Bridge, stretching their run without a win in SW6 to six games.
The Blues remain in the bottom half of the table on 39 points with six games remaining. The run of eight games without a victory has left the club 10 points above the relegation zone.
Only the lack of quality within the bottom six teams means the west Londoners should avoid a scare of dropping out of the Premier League. But the disappointing performances continue to highlight the enormous job waiting for whoever permanently replaces Graham Potter.
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With no game this weekend, the Blues are next in action against city rivals Arsenal on Tuesday. The Gunners remain within touching distance of the Premier League title but have lost ground on Manchester City after losing 4-1 at the Etihad Stadium.
Frank Lampard will be hoping to earn his first win of his spell in SW6 by dealing the Gunners another blow to their title dreams. And he could be handed the best possible chance of doing so by welcoming back a number of key players.
There is hope that trio Kai Havertz, Kalidou Koulibaly and Marc Cucurella will return after missing the defeat to Brentford. Cucurella was ruled out of the game late on, with Lampard insisting the issue was "short term".
"We've had some issues. We've lost Mason, now we've lost Cucurella in the short term as well, so we've been working on how we want to play against Brentford."
He added afterwards: "Cucurella is injured. He injured himself in training two days ago. He will be out for a few weeks with a quad injury."
In Havertz's case, he has missed the last two league games with a knee problem. However, the German is set to return to training this week and could make an appearance in north London. "Kai still struggling a little bit with his knee, won't be available for tomorrow but the good news is he should be training at the end of the week."
Koulibaly is possibly the least likely to feature after sustaining a hamstring injury in the Champions League first-leg defeat to Real Madrid. "A hamstring injury, it will be a matter of weeks rather than days," Lampard said. "He's a very good, very experienced player. It's a disappointment for him and for us, but opportunity and we carry on without him. Hopefully, he gets fit as quick as he can."
Chelsea are guaranteed to be without Reece James and Mason Mount after Lampard confirmed their absence for the remainder of the season. The Cobham graduates join Armando Broja as the long-term absentees.
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