The blues will be hosting Burnley on Saturday in our 22nd Premier League game of the season. As revealed by the Premier League, Kevin Friend has been appointed as the centre referee for this clash.
Adrian Holmes and Simon Beck will be the assistant referees for this game, while Gavin Ward is the fourth official. Andy Madley will be the VAR, assisted by Eddie Smart.
Friend officiated this fixture last season, but this is his first Chelsea game he’d officiate this season. Chelsea will be hoping to bounce back from the 1-1 draw with Brighton as the Blues tend to stake a claim in the place for top four.
Despite Chelsea’s 2-0 win against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup clash on Sunday, Chelsea boss Frank Lampard revealed after the game that he was displeased with the team’s second-half performance. “I don’t like the way we don’t occupy the box enough. We need to occupy it more,” Lampard told Chelsea TV after the game.
“We need to have someone across the front post, generally that’s your striker, midfield players arriving – not hanging outside the box – and opposite winger in the box. It might even be an opposite full-back in the box the way we want to play.
“That’s something we need to get better at, for sure, because we are making some nice little effective combinations on the right.
“We were, before Reece’s injury, in a few of the games here it looked like it was coming off, but it’s no good putting in a great cross and the crowd goes ‘oooh’ and it goes through the other side or we’re not on it or they head it away. We have to occupy the box better.”