Edouard Mendy, Lewis Hall and Joao Felix all start for Chelsea in their Premier League clash against Nottingham Forest this afternoon.
Mendy replaces Kepa Arrizabalaga with the Senegal goalkeeper making his first Chelsea appearance since the defeat to Newcastle United in November. There has been speculation over Mendy's future at Chelsea so he now has a chance to prove himself to the higher powers at the club ahead of the summer transfer window.
Hall comes in for Ben Chilwell, who picked up a hamstring problem in the win at Bournemouth last weekend. Felix, who scored after coming on at the Vitality Stadium, is handed a rare start under Frank Lampard, in place of Kai Havertz.
READ MORE: Chelsea vs Nottingham Forest LIVE: Kick-off time, TV channel, confirmed team news, live stream
Kalidou Koulibaly, Marc Cucurella, Mason Mount and Reece James are all sidelined for the Blues and miss today's clash. Here is the confirmed Chelsea XI: Mendy; Chalobah, Silva, Badiashile, Hall; Kovacic, Fernandez, Gallagher; Madueke, Felix, Sterling.
Chelsea have four matches remaining of the Premier League season and in what has been a disastrous campaign for the Blues, Lampard is determined to build some sort of momentum in the final games. The interim boss spoke about how his side took a different approach last weekend down on the south coast – hinting it could be the way he wants his team to play today as well.
"We took a step forward last weekend with a good win at Bournemouth, which has proved a tough place to go for a lot of teams lately," Lampard wrote in his programme notes. "We played with a good energy, controlled large chunks of the game and dealt with their threat well, but we also stayed patient to get the goals we needed for the win, which moves us in a positive direction.
"Now we have to follow up that performance and result against a Nottingham Forest side that are fighting for their Premier League status. They got a massive win against Southampton and will be keen to build on that now and keep pushing away from those bottom three places, so we have to be ready for that, and prepared to match them for fight and desire as well as impose our own game on them."
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