Lampard ‘unhappy’ as more than 10 Chelsea players were trapped in quarantine ahead of new season

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Chelsea set to play there first Premier League game tonight as the Blues set to meet Brighton in there first Premier League game.

However, Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has revealed how his team’s pre-season preparation was hampered due to quarantine rules.

A number of Chelsea players missed Chelsea’s pre-season friendly match against Brighton. It was the team’s only friendly game ahead of the new season, as Lampard wasn’t afforded the opportunity to test his players in a pre-season friendly.

The likes of Christian Pulisic, Tammy Abraham, Mason Mount, Fikayo Tomori and Emerson Palmieri were required to isolate amid the Covid-19 pandemic, to further land a blow to Lampard’s plans.

Uefa’s decision to put Nations League fixtures just before the start of the new season, also didn’t help. More than ten Chelsea players were affected by this, which didn’t help Lampard’s cause.

“It’s been disruptive,” Lampard said on a Zoom press conference to reporters. “In lots of ways, I’m very fortunate. I know we’re bringing in players we wanted to bring in and already we have a strong squad here.

“But we had a lot of quarantine, I think at one point it was double figures. So that knocked a lot of the training we could do in that first week and then I lost pretty much all the players to international break so I haven’t been able to work with them.

“So you’ve had to rely on international teams and games getting them fit. I’ve got a great relationship with all the managers of the players that go away like that so that hasn’t been a problem, but we haven’t actually had them in our hands, the players.

“So it’s been tough in a way but we have to forget that, it’s done, we’re together now. We know what’s in front of us, we know what games are coming up, we’re very excited to get started and that’s a good feeling. That’s the feeling I have and I think that’s the feeling the squad has.”