Frank Lampard has revealed Hakim Ziyech is close to starting for Chelsea for the first time.
Ziyech has made three appearances for the Blues since his £36.2million move from Ajax in the summer, suffering from an injury heading into his first season at Stamford Bridge.
But he is yet to start a game as he continues to regain fitness following that knee injury, limited to making an impact from the bench of late having not featured in any of the matchday squads until mid-October through the knee setback.
The end is in sight, however, with Frank Lampard revealing Ziyech is close to reaching a point with his fitness where he can start for Chelsea.
Lampard was asked by the Blues' official website whether he was concerned about any lack of creativity following the goalless draw with Manchester United, and he replied: "I am least worried about the front end of the pitch with the players that we have there.
"It is normal it will take some time for the relationships in the side to form, whether we want to play the ball in behind or to feet. We are in such an early part of the season and I know the qualities and the reasons we brought Timo and Kai into the club.
"I know the qualities we already have there and Hakim Ziyech is now looking like he is coming close to starting a game with his fitness. I am very happy with the players."
Lampard was also quizzed on why some of the league's favourites, including Chelsea, haven't exactly lived up to the billing so far.
"It is a hard one to pinpoint because there can be quite few factors," he replied. "Maybe having no fans is a factor, I don’t know why but it certainly feels like it is a factor.
"Talking about ourselves, a lot of the teams at the top of the league at the moment finished their season when we played Wolves last league game of the season, but we went on to play the FA Cup final and in Munich one week later, so I couldn’t give the lads a few days off, and then they had shy of two weeks off.
"When we came back in we had double figures of players in isolation for two weeks so it is not easy. I hate excuses because you can’t hang onto them for too long, you have to move forward, but then we had new players coming into the team.
"Football is always about relationships on the pitch and those are things you work on on the training ground and we are now working on them in game to try to get a lot of improvement in the team.
"So I think it is normal the results may have been affected when you are talking about the teams that maybe are expected to be at the top.
"Talking about ourselves, we need to keep on working and improving because I have a lot of faith in the squad we have. On Saturday we showed a base of being able to keep a clean sheet and show resilience which makes me happy, because I am less worried about those relationships at the top of the pitch because a lot that stuff will be individual quality and we certainly have that."
