Badiashile decision, Madueke promise: Lampard’s double Chelsea call as team news vs Bournemouth confirmed

Frank Lampard has offered a hint of Benoit Badiashile and Noni Madueke’s chances of starting for Chelsea against AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League.

Chelsea are desperately wanting to end a run of six consecutive defeats in all competitions – nine without a win – to record their first victory in almost two months. Their last victory came against Leicester City in a 3-1 rout of Leicester City at the King Power Stadium.

Lampard has managed and lost all six of his games since returning to Chelsea on a caretaker basis, and has five games before the season is over to instil some winning positivity into the club.

They head to the south coast on Saturday afternoon to face an in-form Bournemouth, who have won four of their last five Premier League matches and all but secured their top-flight status for next season.

Bournemouth and Chelsea are level on points, with goal difference separating the sides, and the visitors will be hoping to record the league double over the Cherries following their 2-0 win at Stamford Bridge earlier in the season.

Lampard will be without Reece James, Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Mason Mount and Armando Broja for the fixture, but the caretaker boss confirmed there were no fresh injury blows.

One player who will be pushing for a start is January arrival Benoit Badiashile. He can count himself unfortunate with the restricted game time, however Lampard insisted he is only being kept out of the side due to the competition for places in defence, hinting that he is in contention for Saturday’s match.

“Very close (to playing),” said Lampard on the Frenchman’s chances of returning to the Chelsea side in his pre-match press conference. “He couldn’t play in the Champions League for me. He played against Brighton, which is a difficult match for everybody. Of course, he’s close. He’s in competition with Thiago, Wesley and Trevoh in that area. He’s training well.

“He’s come here, a lot of players have come from a different league at a youngish age into the Premier League. I think it’s understandable to have moments of maybe game time, maybe moments of not, to a degree of a developing player, but more finding your feet in this league.”

Meanwhile, Noni Madueke impressed during the defeat to Arsenal on Tuesday. After being called up into the starting XI, the 21-year-old netted a consolation goal for Chelsea to cap off a bright display in the capital.

It has rewarded him with praise from Lampard and he could retain his starting role against the Cherries as Chelsea look to end their losing run.

“If I want to talk about an individual it’s Noni, who scored the goal, plays how he’s been training,” Lampard said after the Arsenal loss. “He’ll get a lot more opportunities.”