Chelsea's Frank Lampard To Miss Bolton Wanderers Match

Carlo Ancelotti has decided to rest England and Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard rather than pushing him to play on an injured calf against Bolton today. Lampard, who picked up the leg problem during training early last week, had been 'expected' to be fit to start, but the club has a fairly lengthy recent history of being overly optimistic on his recovery from various injuries, so it doesn't come as much surprise that he'll be unavailable to play. According to the official site, he has remained in London while the rest of the squad travels.

Lampard's absence presumably means that Chelsea will field a midfield including all three 'destroyer' type players available to Ancelotti - John Obi Mikel, Michael Essien, and Ramires - while may lead to a distinct lack of creativity in the final third, for which energy is not usually considered a typical substitute. Considering the previous poor play when those three have been fielded together, there's a small chance that 17 year-old Josh McEachran may receive his first Premier League start to add a bit of spark to midfield, but that seems even less likely with the youngster having played all 90 minutes of the FA Youth Cup tie against Arsenal on Thursday.

While Lampard is out, captain John Terry is fit to play and will lead out the side this afternoon. The defender took a hit in the ribs earlier this week (confusingly, the injury was initially described as a 'little back problem' by the coach), but Terry resumed training over the weekend and is now available for the match. While Lampard's absence will be keenly felt by Chelsea's sputtering attack, the return to full fitness of both Terry and holding midfielder John Obi Mikel will be very welcome news to an inconsistent defence.