Frank Lampard is home but has taken on a tough task at Chelsea | Dominic Fifield

Club hero returns amid a transfer embargo, a gulf to the top, injuries – and with a Champions League place still expected

At first glance the timing is all off. Chelsea’s ambitions have been severely constricted as a transfer embargo chokes incoming business, a sanction that could grip through two windows depending on how long it takes the court of arbitration for sport to adjudicate on an appeal. In the meantime the best player, Eden Hazard, has been sold, exiting the squad’s WhatsApp group and parading in the gold-trimmed white shirt of Real Madrid.

Two of the first-team’s most talented academy graduates, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, are in long-term rehabilitation from achilles tendon ruptures and it may be optimistic to expect either to be back in contention this calendar year. A cluttered schedule lies ahead, from pre-season fixtures in Japan to a return to the Champions League. Retreat only a couple of campaigns and Antonio Conte, a far more experienced manager, found that slog too much of a stretch for his title winners, with a fifth-place finish reflecting a collective slip in standards.

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