Chelsea team news to face Newcastle United: Christian Pulisic and Thiago Silva out, Kai Havertz and Ben Chilwell could be involved

With Chelsea in the early kick-off for Saturday, a win would see them move into first place for the time being prior to other fixtures being played elsewhere.

And Lampard has confirmed that they will be without Christian Pulisic and Thiago Silva for the trip to the north east.

“Christian Pulisic is not fit for Newcastle but has stepped up his training slowly. It’s been quite a problematic injury so we will stay cautious.

“Thiago Silva has just landed, he just messaged me this afternoon, so he probably won’t go to Newcastle because of the length of the journey and timings.

“We are still waiting on some results from the tests that we now have to do now the players have arrived back from their internationals. Unfortunately some are arriving back this afternoon, some played last night, so with the 12.30pm kick off on Saturday, this clearly brings a lot of challenges for us.”

Lampard is ‘positive’ that Ben Chilwell will be available for the selection, while Kai Havertz could also be involved after he returned to training after testing negative for Covid-19 after he was hit with the virus prior to the win against Rennes earlier this month.

“Kai Havertz is back after his period of self-isolation and he has been training this week.

“He tested negative [for Covid-19] two days ago so he’s back training, more on his own actually, to get individually some of his fitness back.

“I haven’t seen Ben Chilwell yet. He stayed with England, on the bench last night [Wednesday], obviously getting fantastic care with England, so I will see him this afternoon [Thursday].

He was improving, hence why he was on the bench. I am positive that he will be OK but I’ll have to see later today.”