Chelsea FC XI vs West Brom: Confirmed early team news, predicted lineup, latest injuries for Premier League match
Frank Lampard will decide whether to stick with Kepa Arrizabalaga or start Willy Caballero in goal at West Brom after confirming new Chelsea signing Edouard Mendy will not be considered for selection at the Hawthorns.
Mendy joined Chelsea on a £22million deal from Rennes on Thursday but only trained with his new team-mates for the first time on Friday and Lampard has decided not to throw him straight into action.
“To start on Saturday is not going to happen,” said Lampard. “He has had a long week where he has not really trained, he flew in on Thursday and it just felt a too tight turnaround put him in contention to start the game.”
Chelsea are still without Christian Pulisic and Hakim Ziyech but both players are back training and Lampard says they are not far away from a return.
“They are both training with us now which is good news and we hope to have them with us in match contention over the next week or two,” he said.
Thiago Silva could make his Premier League debut after coming through 60 minutes in the Carabao Cup in the week, but Ben Chilwell is unlikely to start as he builds up his fitness following his injury.
Lampard said: “It was good to see Thiago get 60 minutes in the tank. With Ben, I will perhaps be a bit more cautious. His injury has been a challenging one.”
Kai Havertz scored a hat-trick against Barnsley playing in the No10 role and Tammy Abraham is pushing to start after a good display in that game.
Predicted Chelsea XI vs West Brom (4-3-3): Caballero; James, Zouma, Silva, Alonso; Kante, Havertz, Kovacic; Mount, Abraham, Werner.
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