Arsenal defender David Luiz didn't strike to force Chelsea exit, says Frank Lampard

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James Olley9 August 2019

Frank Lampard has insisted David Luiz did not go on strike to force a move through to Arsenal.

The 32-year-old completed a dramatic £8million deadline day switch across London amid suggestions he trained away from the first-team group and proved a disruptive influence in an effort to complete a deal.

Luiz is believed to have been told he would no longer be first-choice centre-back with Lampard ready to partner Andreas Christensen with Kurt Zouma in the Blues’ opening Premier League match at Manchester United on Sunday but the new Chelsea boss rejected any suggestion the Brazilian had caused internal issues.

"There certainly wasn’t any strike so I’ll make that clear,” he said. “In terms of a fallout, no. I always respected honesty from a manager, whatever the news, and I respected the same back from David.

“I had some conversations [with Luiz] over the last week, honest ones because I know him well and the conclusion of that was he moved on. It is an area of the pitch where I have competition and people will be needing to make that shirt of their own. I don’t have ones, twos three in each position. It is the same all over the pitch.”

Lampard also claimed his players should use pre-season predictions they will miss out on Champions League qualification – chiefly due to a two-window FIFA transfer ban denying them the chance to strengthen their squad – as motivation for a top four push.

“I love listening to the radio and hearing the predictions we are not in the top four,” he added. “We should all accept that challenge.

“We have to remain competitive while we are in this position. With the ban, it has been easy to write off this squad, and I don’t write off this squad at all. I think that what is important is that you have a target within the group. What matters is how we approach things. We will see how we go.

“Manchester City and Liverpool showed there was a gap, everyone has to make it up. We will aim to win and of course we want to be in the Champions League every year.”

Lampard confirmed N’Golo Kante has recovered from a knee injury but must assess whether the midfielder is match-fit while Willian (knee) and Antonio Rudiger (meniscus) are set to miss out.

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