Chelsea manager Frank Lampard won’t rule out Kepa Arrizabalaga leaving this month.
Kepa has barely seen any game time since the arrival of Edouard Mendy.
Following a string of high profile mistakes Lampard was left with little choice but to replace the shot-stopper.
And having cost a world record £72million Chelsea will be desperate to recoup some of their fee.
“We’ll see how January goes,” Lampard said when pressed on the goalkeeper’s future.
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has confirmed N’Golo Kante has a hamstring problem, but is hopeful that his injury isn’t too serious with his star midfielder key to turning around a run of poor form.
Lampard is under increasing pressure following a bad run that has seen his side win just one of their last six Premier League matches.
Kante has been ever-present during the run, starting the last four games in a 10-day period.
“Reece James is out for the game, although he will be training with us tomorrow,” Lampard said.
“It’s the same as Andreas Christensen, and Kante is out also with a minor hamstring injury. So he misses this game and is suspended for Fulham anyway, so we’ll get him right. Those three are out.”
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard admits he’s nervous facing FA Cup third round opponents Morecambe.
As the pressure builds on Lampard, he called on his confidence-hit players to be “even more on guard” as they prepare to host League Two Morecambe in the third-round of the FA Cup on Sunday.
He said: “No matter form, team, status, the FA Cup has a magic that’s been there forever which means underdogs will turn up and make it difficult. With our current form, we have to be even more on guard.
“Confidence has been hit with the difficult patch we’ve had. But I’ll pick a team to try to win the game.
“There’s only one way to move on from a lack of confidence and that’s to work hard. You’ve got to sprint out of a lack of confidence.”
Lampard admitted that it has been hard to juggle his big squad, and said that some players are finding the lack of minutes tough.
“When you have a squad as big as we do, there are probably more non-starters than starters. So it’s only human nature that players find that tough,” he added.
Chelsea have drawn up a four-man shortlist in the event they need to remove manager Frank Lampard.
The Blues have won just one of their last six Premier League games and Sunday’s 3-1 defeat to Manchester City saw the pressure on Lampard ramp up.
The Independent reports Thomas Tuchel, Max Allegri, Brendan Rodgers and Ralph Hasenhuttl are the names being considered if Lampard is handed his P45.
Tuchel was recently fired by Paris Saint-Germain, and will no doubt be desperate to return to management as soon as possible.
Allegri, meanwhile, is another coach in search of a new club having not been in employment since Juventus at the end of the 2018-19 season.
Rodgers would be a fascinating choice given his history with Chelsea, with the Leicester boss having worked as head youth coach and reserve team manager at the club in the past.
His impressive spell at Leicester so far make him an attractive proposition, similar to Hasenhuttl, who is overachieving with Southampton this season.
Chelsea are enduring their worst season form since Roman Abramovich bought the club in 2003.
Sunday’s 3-1 home defeat to Manchester City piled on the pressure for beleaguered boss Frank Lampard.
He has now lost four of his last six league matches, picking up just one win against West Ham.
Chelsea have slipped to eighth in the table as a result, having gained only 26 points with seven wins from 17 games.
That is the worst start to a season during all 17 years of owner Abramovich’s Stamford Bridge reign.
And Lampard also has the worst average points-per-game during the Russian’s tenure, picking up just 1.67 points from 55 league matches.
That’s even worse than flops including Andre Villas-Boas and Luiz Felipe Scolari.
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard insisted he is not worried about being sacked after his side lost 3-1 at home to Manchester City on Sunday.
The Blues have won just one of their last seven Premier League matches and sit eighth in the table, seven points behind Liverpool having played a game more than the reigning champions.
Pressure is building on the former Chelsea and England midfielder, but he does not fear losing his job at this point.
“I am not going to speak for the people above or the board,” he said at a press conference after the match.
“I can’t answer about my contract, the run and the difficult results, I can only speak as the manager of the club.”
He added: “I am not concerned on that. I just spoke to the team after the game about how I expected periods of difficulty. I know it doesn’t come easy.
“A month ago, people were discussing when was I going to get a new contract. Pressure remains constant. My job is to keep working and pick up the players.
“I had tough periods last year. Maybe I had some mitigating circumstances so people didn’t view them the same but I had a really good run in November and we lost three home games in December that we controlled.
“We lost 1-0, 2-0, 1-0 and to me they felt tough and rough. I am a perfectionist who wants the best for this club.
“The first person who puts on the pressure is me. At times, last year, I wanted to push and be even better than fourth, even though I felt it was an achievement considering the ban and the youth in the squad.
“This season the 16-game unbeaten run was something I was always trying to temper as it went on. We breezed through our Champions League group.
“I didn’t take much notice of that because I felt that with the players and the way they were playing that we should get through and we showed some really good form.”
Chelsea boss Frank Lampard admits he wants to be active in the January market.
With the transfer window open for the next month, the usual speculation around player moves has begun and Lampard revealed he is open to the possibility of new signings, although he suggested any incoming business will likely involve current players moving on first.
“I have ideas,” said Lampard. “We have a big squad, we’ll have to see if that changes, if there are opportunities for players who aren’t playing so much. That will be a conversation between the player, club and myself.
“Then we’ll see if we can strengthen in the right way, but we’re not jumping up and down to do so. My focus this year is purely on work because we have new players, because we have young players, so I’m focusing on that. But we’ll see, it’s a long month.”
Frank Lampard has hinted that Hakim Ziyech could be available for Chelsea’s blockbuster Premier League match against Manchester City on Sunday.
The Morocco international who joined the Blues from Ajax for a fee of €40 million has been out of action following a hamstring injury against Leeds United on December 2, 2020.
With just 30 minutes into the league clash at Stamford Bridge, the 27-year-old went down after passing to James Reece in the build-up to the Blues’ equalising goal.
“He’s fit to train and has trained the last two or three days so I’ll have to make the decision on whether he’s ready to start.” Lampard said during Friday’s press conference per Chelsea website.
Chelsea boast a 27 per cent win rate in the 11 Premier League games Ziyech has not started this term, compared to 80 per cent in the five games he has featured from the beginning.
Interestingly, no Blues player has matched the Morocco international’s average of 2.77 chances created per 90 minutes either, Callum Hudson-Odoi the next best for the one-time European kings at 2.66.
Chelsea boss Frank Lampard admits they miss Hakim Ziyech’s creative edge.
Lampard concedes their form has fallen away since Ziyech was forced out with a knee injury.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence, no. Although I cannot be completely sure. You never know how something will have an impact, even if it seems a foregone conclusion in terms of points,” Lampard said after last night’s draw with Aston Villa.
“The way Hakim played was important to Chelsea. He was very effective in assists, creating opportunities and some goals.
“And he also radiated a lot of confidence when he was on the ball. Chelsea’s play was fluid. We were in shape, we were in a flow, until he got injured against Leeds United. So somewhere you are right. You always miss such players, literally and figuratively, if for whatever reason they cannot participate.
“When will he be back? There is a possibility that he can compete against Manchester City on Sunday. If that match of course is played…”
Chelsea’s manager, Frank Lampard has lamented his team’s woeful overall performance against Arsenal blaming it for their loss.
The English tactician said all the basics of his players in the match were all wrong.
“Not good enough on the basics, sprints, pressing and running, speed of pass and trying to play and make angles, all the basics were wrong.
He highlighted his team’s first-half performance saying that ‘you can’t turn up like that.
“Not good enough first half, better second half but too much to do at that point. I am not sure if complacency is the right word but there was definitely a lethargic approach to the first half that no matter whether you were playing Arsenal in a tough moment who have got quality players, or any team in the Premier League, you can’t turn up like that.”
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The manager when asked why he took off Timo Werner after the half time break, said the German was not giving enough.
‘Timo today wasn’t giving us enough with or without the ball and some of it we have to give him time because it is a different league but also we have to get there quickly, so we’ll see about his tiredness.
The boss refused to comment on Jorginho’s penalty miss.