Chelsea host Crystal Palace at Stamford Bridge in the early kick-off on Saturday knowing that a win would temporarily at least move them up to second place in the Premier League table.
Since losing to Liverpool at the back-end of September, Frank Lampard’s men have picked up wins over Brighton, Southampton, Newcastle United, Burnley and Watford to put themselves right back into the mix in the battle for a top-four finish this season.
With the international break to follow this weekend, the Blues will undoubtedly hope to sign off with another victory and they’ve been handed a huge boost in their bid to do so.
As confirmed in the club’s tweet below, N’Golo Kante is named in the starting line-up and that will be welcome news for Chelsea given the influential Frenchman has missed a number of games due to injury so far this season, as noted by The Sun.
The report above suggested that the midfielder was back in training this week and could feature, and so it appears as though he has come through unscathed and has been passed fit to make his comeback from injury with the club’s tweet below reserving a special mention for him on his return.
Meanwhile, Mason Mount has also handed a fitness boost to Lampard after he emerged as a doubt during the week having come off against Ajax in the second half of their Champions League encounter, as per The Independent.
The 20-year-old has bagged four goals and two assists so far this season, and having appeared in 17 outings, he has been a consistent part of Lampard’s plans thus far.
Further, there is also a first Premier League start for youngster Reece James as he comes in for Cesar Azpilicueta, and he’ll undoubtedly hope to build on his impressive impact in midweek as he scored in the 4-4 draw with the Dutch giants.
Along with the likes of Mount, Tammy Abraham and Fikayo Tomori, Lampard continues to show faith in his youngsters and the products of the club’s youth development, and he’ll hope that they can help deliver three more points and keep Chelsea moving in the right direction this weekend.
Here's the Chelsea team to play Crystal Palace!
Welcome back, @nglkante! ?#CHECRY pic.twitter.com/gH3cpgTz0E
— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) November 9, 2019
A first PL start for Reece James as Azpilicueta drops to the bench.
Mount is passed fit which means the only other change is Kante for the suspended Jorginho. #CFC #CPFC
? @PremierInjuries https://t.co/3OsRCOYAmr https://t.co/8m1fS9dof0
— Ben Dinnery (@BenDinnery) November 9, 2019
