Kante, Kovacic and Hudson-Odoi - Latest Chelsea team news and expected line-up vs Lille

Chelsea are back in action on Wednesday night as they face Lille in the Champions League.

Having lost against Valencia at home on matchday one a fortnight ago, Blues head coach Frank Lampard will be aware that there's little room for error if his side are to still be in the competition after Christmas.

With that said, the west London outfit do go into the game on the back of two successive victories so confidence withi n

One injury worry ahead of the trip to France was that of N'Golo Kante after he missed the 2-0 win over Brighton and Hove Albion at the weekend.

"Yes, it's an awareness. I didn't want to take the risk," Lampard said in his post-match press conference. "I spoke to N'Golo about it, he's so important for us - we know that - but he's had a difficult pre-season.

"It's been difficult for us but mainly for him to get going because of the break up of his pre-season as his injury carried over from last year, so it wasn't right to risk it today.

Then when asked if Kante could return against Lille, Lampard was rather upbeat.

"Yes, he could have a chance for Lille," Lampard added.

The good news for Chelsea fans is that Kante trained alongside the likes of Olivier Giroud, Mason Mount, Willian Jorginho and Cesar Azpilicueta at Cobham on Tuesday morning.

N'Golo Kante attends the training session after missing the win over Brighton (Glyn KIRK / AFP)

We would expect Kante to earn a recall to the side in place of Pedro.

The other change Lampard could make is handing Mateo Kovacic a start ahead of Ross Barkley who struggled against the Seagulls a couple of days ago.

All of which would mean Mason Mount returning to the left of a front three, with Callum Hudson-Odoi settling for a place on the bench.

Kurt Zouma also trained on Tuesday which confirms he's over the illness which kept him out at the weekend, but it's likely that Lampard sticks with the centre-back partnership of Andreas Christensen and Fikayo Tomori.

Expected Chelsea line-up vs Lille: Kepa; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Tomori, Alonso; Jorginho, Kante, Kovacic; Willian, Abraham, Mount

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