Chelsea are hopeful that Edouard Mendy will pass a late fitness test and be available for their Champions League clash with Sevilla on Tuesday night at Stamford Bridge.
Mendy missed the weekend’s Premier League meeting with Southampton due to a thigh injury he picked up on international duty with Senegal.
Kepa Arrizabalaga returned to the starting XI and did not have a great game as the Blues were held to a 3-3 draw by Southampton.
It was expected that Mendy would still be out for the first Champions League group game of Chelsea’s season, but manager Frank Lampard has not given up hope on his fitness.
The Telegraph reports that the giant ‘keeper trained on Sunday and Monday with Chelsea and is still in contention to take the gloves against the La Liga side.
Mendy made his Premier League debut before the international break and kept a clean sheet as he was largely untested in the 4-0 win over Crystal Palace.
Lampard will be pushing for Mendy to return to the starting XI after making it clear he has not been happy with his other goalkeeping options in the pre-match press conference.
It was put to Lampard that in his 43 Premier League games in charge his side have conceded 1.5 goals-per-game, giving him the worst record of any Chelsea manager.
However, he says this is not really the defence’s shot, but specifically the goalkeepers he has been forced to pick.
‘In terms of the goals conceded, I am aware of the stats,’ said Lampard. ‘The other stat is that since I’ve been here, we’ve conceded the second least shots in the Premier League behind Man City.
‘It helps sometimes to narrow down the issues. The issues are that we don’t concede many shots on goal but when we do, we concede goals.
‘It’s something we’re aware of. We’re aware of it when we look at recruitment and more than that you’re aware of the need to work on the pitch with the players to ensure that when we hopefully set up well we don’t concede many chances but when the chances we concede we let in too much. It’s something we work on specifically.’
