Chelsea Without 7 Players For Man City Clash As Frank Lampard Confirms Injury News

Blues caretaker coach, Frank Lampard has revealed Benoit Badiashile will be missing for Chelsea’s trip to Manchester City today after he injured his groin earlier this week in training.

Badiashile has starred for the Blues in their past two matches, particularly against Bournemouth where he scored his first goal for the club since signing in January. However, Lampard has now confirmed the Frenchman will be missing for the trip to Manchester, alongside six of his teammates.

“We’re pretty much similar to where we have been recently,” Lampard told reporters when asked about injuries. “Mason [Mount], Reece [James], Chilly [Ben Chilwell], N’Golo [Kante] and Marc Cucurella are not fit.

“Kouli [Kalidou Koulibaly] has been training this week but is not ready for a game like this. He is ahead of schedule, to be fair. Benoit injured his groin in training two days ago and will miss the game. We are assessing that as we speak.”

Lampard didn’t mention Mateo Kovacic who limped off in the first-half of Chelsea’s 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest at the weekend.

vvIt looked like a muscular injury for the Croatian, who hasn’t been pictured in training this week but there was no mention of the midfielder from the interim head coach.

Chelsea face what looks like a near-impossible task this weekend away at the treble-chasing Man City. Pep

Guardiola’s side cruised past Real Madrid in the second-leg of the Champions League semi-final on Wednesday evening, which means they are now in the final of the European competition, as well as the FA Cup and they are one win away from the Premier League title for a third successive season.

Lampard knows just how good City are and how tough of a test it will be for his side. However, the caretaker Chelsea boss refused to call them the best-ever team the Premier League has seen.

“I don’t know about the greatest. I think that’s a hard debate,” Lampard said on Man City. “But I think they’re clearly a fantastic team. They have been for a good while now, so a huge credit to that consistency.

“They’re doing it year in and year out to those levels. They are very close to being the greatest-ever team. Obviously the cherry on top will be to keep winning, win the Champions League. The form they’re in at the minute; you wouldn’t want to bet against them in anything, so huge credit to the club.

“I worked there for a year, I understand it quite well, the manager and the players. They’re a really strong and smooth machine, so huge respect for them.”