Here are your Chelsea evening headlines for Thursday, October 29.
Lampard delivers Thiago Silva fitness update
Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has confirmed Thiago Silva is fit and ready to face Burnley on Saturday.
The Brazilian centre-back was left out of the Blues' travelling party for the Champions League clash against Krasnodar, partly due to the fact he had played 90 minutes in the draws against Sevilla and Manchester United.
Given Silva is 36 years old, Lampard was always going to have to carefully handle his minutes this season. And the Chelsea manager confirmed that was the sole reason the former Paris Saint-Germain captain didn't feature in Russia.
"Thiago is fit. Taking him out of Russia was a maintenance issue," Lampard said in his pre-match press conference.
The Blues boss added the only fitness concern in his squad, as things stand, is goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
He said: "Kepa has had progression in his shoulder injury. In terms of the rest, no clear injuries but a tired group that arrived back quite late.
"Will assess everyone today and tomorrow to see where we're at."
Lampard hits back over Pulisic comments
Lampard has hit back at claims from Red Bull Salzburg boss Jesse Marsch that he did not rate Christian Pulisic when the winger first arrived at Chelsea because he is American
When asked what he thought of Marsch’s comments, Lampard said: “ I was surprised that Jesse had managed to read my mind as well as he thought he did. He's recounted the conversation wrong. I have to put it correct.
"We played Salzburg and Christian scored two goals in pre-season. Fair enough, Jesse came up to me and said what a talented player Christian was, which I knew and agreed with.
"I spoke about the fact that equally it was so exciting to see how he would develop for us with the talent that he had. That was the conversation, Jesse managed to put it across slightly differently.
"Maybe Jesse knows the feeling of American coaches that travel to Europe, maybe he has things like that. I get that.
"But I played in America for 18 months and I would never underestimate the desire that American football players have to learn and improve, take on information and understand the technical side of the game.
"When you have that, which Christian has and you have incredible talent, it was never in doubt for me."
You can read the rest of Lampard's comments here.
Giggs was given three weeks to prepare for Ballack
Manchester United legend Ryan Giggs has revealed Sir Alex Ferguson pulled him aside three weeks prior to a game against Chelsea and told him to prepare to face former Blues midfielder Michael Ballack.
"The majority of the time he [Ferguson] could trust us to play a role," Giggs told The Greatest Game with Jamie Carragher. "I go back, played midfield at Old Trafford against Chelsea.
"He pulled me like three weeks before the game. He said, ‘We’re playing Chelsea, I want you to play in midfield against Michael Ballack. He doesn’t like players running at him, you’ll give him nightmares.’
“I think it was the quarter-finals of the Champions League. I’d been in and out of the team at the time. ‘Three weeks away, there’s like five games in between. I said, ‘What about the other games in between?’
“He says: ‘Forget about them. Just get yourself ready for Chelsea.’ It was that sort of thing. Okay, you’d be subbed, be in and out of the team, but get yourself right for that.”
