Chilwell, Mendy fit for Spurs, as Lampard plays down Rüdiger, Kepa exit talk

With just two days off between games, there isn’t much time for players to recover, let alone train, but we do have two new players fully fit for tomorrow’s League Cup contest against Spurs, whose schedule is even more ridiculous with four (4!) games in eight (8) days. (This is the second of those four.)

Frank Lampard confirmed in his pre-match press conference that Ben Chilwell and Édouard Mendy are both fit to play now, though whether they will start is another question. The others who are injured continue to recover and are unavailable, but considering that this game comes just a few days after Lampard put their prognosis at 1-2 weeks, that’s not surprising — though Ziyech did crop up in training today.

“Mendy and Chilwell are in the squad for tomorrow. They’re fit and we will see whether they start or not.

“Ziyech and Pulisic are not far away. They are still in their recovery stage so it’s too early for them both.”

“The early signs and the interactions as a man and also on the training pitch have been very positive [with Mendy]. He’s settled in very well in those few days and we’ve made him very welcome. It’s competition, we know that. He’s a good goalkeeper, we know a lot about him, and we will see how we go.”

-Frank Lampard; source: Chelsea FC

Given the fixture congestion, rotation and depth will come into focus. The injuries up front have limited options in the first few weeks of the season, but apparently not badly enough that we would reintegrate someone like Victor Moses. The 29-year-old is still around somewhere, but not really.

On the plus side, that should give Hudson-Odoi ample opportunity to impress.

“At the moment Victor isn’t in that position with us, he hasn’t been part of the bubble. We will see how the week goes.”

-Frank Lampard; source: Football.London

“With Callum, I certainly hope he has a big part to play this season. When you talk about Ziyech and Pulisic, we’re not inundated with wingers because we lost Pedro and Willian in the summer and we need competition. If Callum comes on and makes an impact like he did at West Brom and keeps improving every day, he’s a huge talent.”

-Frank Lampard; source: Chelsea FC

While Moses and the likes of Drinkwater and Bakayoko are nothing more than items on a financial spreadsheet, the futures of Antonio Rüdiger and Kepa Arrizabalaga are still up for discussion. Rüdiger trained as normal with the first-team today, as did Kepa with the rest of the goalkeeper group.

That said, while carrying three goalkeepers is fairly standard, keeping five center backs is not. Rüdiger remains part of the first-team for now, but we would expect that to be the case until he isn’t.

“I wouldn’t assume anything [regarding Rüdiger]. I will make no assumption.”

“No I won’t go to that point [that Kepa has played his last game for Chelsea].”

-Frank Lampard; source: Football.London

“It’s been a difficult time for Kepa and that’s been well-documented. I know it and he knows it but we should also understand that he’s a young man and a lot of the spotlight on him has been slightly unfair.

“I have to protect him because I know he’s a good lad and playing with absolute professionalism and intent to do the best he can. I’ve felt strongly about that in the past week.”

-Frank Lampard; source: Chelsea FC

We still have a week to go in the transfer window. Meanwhile, time for more football, Carabao Cup style!