International football is over for a month and the Premier League is back. Multiple Chelsea players returned to Cobham this week with differing stories to tell of their time with their national side, and ahead of today’s game at the Bridge their manager has shared some thoughts on two of those who have been away.
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Ross Barkley and Christian Pulisic have not been in our starting line-up as regularly as others this season but they both scored for their respective countries during the international break, even if there were contrasting fortunes in the second of their two games away.
Ross Barkley was a late substitute in England’s defeat in the Czech Republic but he returned to the starting 11 in style in Bulgaria when he scored two goals having set up the opener.
‘Ross played well,’ praises Lampard. ‘I am loving his arrival into the box, that is what you always want when you are playing with midfielders with attacking qualities, for them to be in the six-yard box, not just to be in and around the area, and it is good for his confidence.
‘He knows that it is competitive here for a place in midfield. I am delighted to see players going away internationally and doing well, particularly if they have not been playing as much as they would like to here. It gives me a good problem and I am pleased for him.’
