Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has revealed why he selected Olivier Giroud as his starting striker for the UEFA Super Cup clash against Liverpool in Istanbul.
The World Cup winning forward came off the bench in Sunday's 4-0 defeat to Manchester United, with Tammy Abraham leading the line from the start after returning from his impressive loan spell with Aston Villa.
With no Alvaro Morata or Gonzalo Higuain this season, the two forwards will be battling it out for starting berths in Lampard's side - and he revealed it was an easy decision selecting Giroud for tonight's game.
“I’m not picking on sentiment but the players that got us here last year certainly deserve a crack and he was very good, influential in getting us to the final and winning it,” he told BT Sport.
“I’ve got strikers to pick from. We know what he gives us, he’s a threat in the box and he’s a leader in the dressing room, so it was an easy choice.
“I had to make some changes because we played on Sunday, so we had to freshen it up, Liverpool played on Friday at home."
The Blues head coach also sprung a surprise with the inclusion of N'Golo Kante in his starting XI.
This didn't seem possible when Lampard revealed the Frenchman was carrying an injury.
"He has a small injury which we are concerned about and we will have to decide with him on that this evening," Lampard told reporters yesterday.
"Can he play or not?
"He’s had a very broken pre-season."
But Kante starts as does January signing Christian Pulisic who was a second half substitute in the Premier League opener against Manchester United at the weekend.
