After a month on the side, Hakim Ziyech returns to Chelsea’s starting eleven on Sunday afternoon in the home game against Manchester City. Manager Frank Lampard announced last Friday that the attacking midfielder cum winger had recovered from his hamstring injury and would be part of his match selection for the top match against the Citizens. Lampard has now also chosen to give Ziyech a basic place again.
“Ziyech has been training with him for the past two or three days, but the decision whether he will start has not yet been made,” Lampard said on Friday. The Chelsea manager has immediately given up a starting place for Ziyech, who is at the forefront with Timo Werner and Christian Pulisic. Behind this front line, N’Golo Kanté, Mateo Kovacic and Mason Mount form the midfield. Goalkeeper Édouard Mendy faces a defense consisting of César Azpilicueta, Thiago Silva, Kurt Zouma and Ben Chilwell.
Ziyech fell out with a hamstring injury in the 29th minute game against Leeds United (3-1 win) on December 5 and has been working on his recovery ever since. The former Ajax player had to miss six matches and was sorely missed: Chelsea managed to win only once without Ziyech, twice and lost three times. The Blues rank sixth in the Premier League. Ziyech also suffered a knee injury at the beginning of the season and, partly as a result, played twelve games in the first half of the season, in which he scored two goals and three assists.
At Manchester City, the absence of Ederson Zack Steffen is under the bar. The 25-year-old American goalkeeper is making his Premier League debut at Stamford Bridge, having already played in the EFL Cup and Champions League earlier this season. The selection of Manchester City is also plagued by the corona virus and therefore saw the away game against Everton canceled last week. It has not been revealed exactly who all the infected players are, but besides Ederson, manager Pep Guardiola in London cannot have Gabriel Jesus, Kyle Walker, Eric García, Ferran Torres and Nathan Aké at his disposal.
Chelsea line up: Mendy; Azpilicueta, Zouma, Silva, Chilwell; Kovacic, Kante, Mount; Ziyech, Werner and Pulisic.
Manchester City lineup: Steffen; Cancelo, Dias, Stones, Zinchenko; Rodrigo, Gundogan, De Bruyne; Foden, Silva and Sterling