Competition for places: Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic’s return to Chelsea squad a good problem for Chelsea, says Frank Lampard

Frank Lampard insists he is happy with having selection headaches after Hakim Ziyech and Christian Pulisic returned to the squad from injury. 

The duo have been unavailable for selection this season due to hamstring and knee injuries respectively, but have been confirmed to be in the squad to face Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday.

Pulisic featured from the bench in the Blues’ last outing against Crystal Palace after returning from his hamstring problem which he sustained in the FA Cup final last season.

Going forward, Chelsea have several options to choose from. With the likes of Callum Hudson-Odoi, Pulisic and Ziyech all vying for places out on the wing, in addition to Mason Mount, Kai Havertz and Timo Werner who can all also shift out wide. 

(Photo by Kirsty Wigglesworth – Pool/Getty Images)

But Lampard says he is ‘happy’ to have this problem stating that he wants competition in his side to improve as they look to compete on all fronts this season. 

“Any team that wants to compete towards the top of the league or the Champions League and play in the FA Cup and go through a season needs more than one player per position,” Lampard said. “It needs to be competitive across the front area and we had it last year.

“We lost Willian, we lost Pedro, we lost Batshuayi, but we’ve brought in players who bring the same level of competition in terms of numbers and I feel like the quality levels and some of the options we brought in, of course you bring them in because you want to improve.

“It’s up to the players of course, it will always remain up to them in terms of their performance, and at the same time it gives me nice problems in terms that we can hopefully be selecting players, we can use them through the season, we’ll have options to come off the bench. So I’m happy with what some people might want to call a problem in that area.”

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