Chelsea will be looking to close the gap on Leicester City in the Premier League table on Saturday as it’s third vs fourth at the King Power Stadium.
Frank Lampard’s men haven’t been in the greatest of form in recent weeks, as they’ve won just two of their last five league games.
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While they’ll hope to look up the standings at the Foxes, they will also need to be wary of the chasing pack behind them in the battle for Champions League qualification.
Rivals Man Utd, Tottenham and Wolves are just six points adrift heading into the weekend, and so Lampard will be fully aware of the fact that Chelsea can’t afford to slip-up and give them the chance to wipe that deficit out.
In turn, he has unsurprisingly named a strong starting XI as seen in the club’s tweet below but Kepa Arrizabalaga has been dropped to the bench as Willy Caballero steps in between the posts to replace him.
Elsewhere, as noted by the club’s official site, there is a double fitness boost for Lampard as Reece James is back after being passed fit, as is Tammy Abraham who has recovered from an ankle knock.
Other notable decisions include Pedro keeping his place in the starting XI after featuring in the win over Hull City in the FA Cup last time out, while Antonio Rudiger makes it 100 appearances for Chelsea.
Nevertheless, the big talking point will be Kepa dropping to the bench as the Spaniard’s form hasn’t been great this season and Lampard has seemingly felt now is the right time to keep Caballero in.
Time will tell if that proves to be the right decision, but the experienced shot-stopper will be desperate to make a positive impression having been given a chance by the Chelsea boss to start in back-to-back games.
Team news is in!
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— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) February 1, 2020