The Blues welcome Nottingham Forest to Stamford Bridge this Saturday in the 3pm kick off.
We don’t even have to call this one a relegation battle anymore, because after our 3-1 victory over Bournemouth in their own backyard on Saturday, we are now mathematically safe, as daft as it feels to write that!
Our opponents though are still very much in a relegation battle and will be giving it absolutely everything they can to try and survive, with things still very tight and close at the bottom of the table.
Forest have won two and lost three in their last five matches and have beaten Brighton 3-1, and in a crazy game on Monday, beat Southampton 4-3. Make no mistake, they are fighting and they are going to leave it ALL out on that Stamford Bridge pitch this Saturday.
Hopefully Chelsea will be a little more confident after beating Bournemouth and scoring three goals in one game, and they can take that into the game on Saturday. I wouldn’t say I was full of confidence myself personally, but there were many positive signs from Saturday that makes me feel a little more hopeful at least for this game.
How will Frank Lampard line up? I think something like this:
Obviously there is no chance of seeing Carney Chukwuemeka in the squad now he’s had the nod for the England U20s, and I don’t expect to see any other youngsters or surprise inclusions at least starting the game other than Lewis Hall and Noni Madueke, who would deservedly be keeping his place.
I think Raheem sterling comes in for Mykhailo Mudryk (I truly hope this doesn’t happen), and although a big part of me thinks Joao Felix could start instead, I reckon Kai Havertz keeps his place up top.
Wesley Fofana has been back in full training and should be available again, but simply because he missed the last game with injury, I think the two centre backs will stay the same.
Lampard will be very eager to win this game and have a strong end to the season, for Chelsea, and of course, for him and his staff. Losing all these games would have hurt Lampard a lot, and whilst we can all debate and be very annoyed with some of his selections, you cannot question his desire to win for Chelsea. He’s a Chelsea man and suffers with us as fans.
Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images
I’d very much like to see a David Datro Fofana come in for example, but I’m not sure we will see that. Maybe on the bench. I’m just hoping he starts Hall and I believe he will.
In terms of result, I am going to call a Chelsea win. I don’t know why or where this small hope has come from. But I think if we don’t win this one then I can’t see us winning another one all season and we might use the momentum from Bournemouth to keep going. We looked more confident in attack last weekend, and I think we can win this 2-1.
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