Frank Lampard hints that Chelsea outcast Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang would have featured against Real Madrid: ‘He couldn’t play for me’

• Striker slipped out of favour
• Omitted from European squad
• Seeing Premier League minutes

WHAT HAPPENED? The Blues legend returned to Stamford Bridge on April 6 when accepting the offer of an interim coaching role through to the end of the 2022-23 campaign. Things have not played out as planned since that decision was made, with five successive defeats suffered in his first five matches across all competitions. Two of those came in a Champions League quarter-final clash against La Liga giants Real, with Aubameyang unavailable for those fixtures after being left of Chelsea’s European plans in February.

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WHAT THEY SAID: Lampard has given Aubameyang outings off the bench in Premier League losses to Wolves and Brentford, bringing his exile to a close, and has hinted that he would have liked to use the proven striker more often. The Blues boss told reporters after giving the Gabonese frontman 45 minutes against the Bees: “Auba has been a tough one for me because I have complete respect for him and his career. He has scored what, over 300 goals in his club career?

"He couldn’t play the two Real Madrid games for me because he was not in the squad. He came on for me against Wolves and for a number nine to be sharp and playing regularly is key. To see him training when we haven’t had many minutes before to train, he came into my thinking today anyway. You can see he is the profile of a number nine and we don’t have that in the squad so I did see a difference in that today.”

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Former Arsenal captain Aubameyang returned to English football when joining Chelsea from Barcelona in the summer of 2022, but he quickly fell out of favour in west London and has registered just three goals through 20 appearances this season – with the last of those coming in a Champions League win over AC Milan on October 11.

IN TWO PHOTOS:

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WHAT NEXT? Lampard will continue to use all of those at his disposal, as he searches for a winning formula, with Chelsea set to be back in action on May 2 when taking in a trip to Arsenal – with the 11th-placed Blues now six points adrift of the Premier League’s top half.