N’Golo Kante to miss Chelsea’s crucial trip to ‘title challengers’ Leicester City, reveals Frank Lampard
Frank Lampard needs a big performance in order to kickstart Chelsea’s faltering season
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Your support makes all the difference.N’Golo Kante will not be available for Chelsea’s crucial away trip to third-place Leicester City on Tuesday evening. Kante was suspended for Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Fulham and although his ban is now over, the midfielder is struggling with a hamstring injury.
“Andreas Christensen is available but N’Golo Kane unfortunately isn’t with a with his hamstring issue,” Frank Lampard told the media on Monday.
Lampard believes Leicester are in the title race and that Chelsea, who are currently six points further back in seventh place, need to give their forwards “a kickstart” in order to start producing consisting goals to get back in the mix.
He also defended the out-of-form Timo Werner, the 24-year-old Germany international who joined the club for £48m in the summer after scoring 28 Bundesliga goals for RB Leipzig last season.
"He just needs to keep his head down and focus,” Lampard said of Werner, rejecting a comparison drawn with Fernando Torres when he struggled after a £50m move from Liverpool to Stamford Bridge. "It is a small period in what I hope is a fantastic career at Chelsea."
Lampard has told his Chelsea players to forget the Premier League title race and fight their way back into the top-four battle.
"We can't consider too much the race as it stands, instead we have to consider ourselves - consider can we get a result against Leicester who are a competitor up there. And then see can we get wins together that will propel us back up to where we want to be. But the race is relatively open, especially in comparison to recent years I suppose.
"Leicester are in the race for sure, the way they are playing and the results they're getting and their position in the league. We managed to get above Leicester at the back-end of last season, but it was a big ask for us. They are a very good team, with very good individuals, we know that, and a really good manager in Brendan Rodgers. So they're in the race, and there are others that are in the race too."
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