Frank Lampard says Chelsea FC are still in ‘pre-season mode’ after League Cup defeat at Tottenham

Frank Lampard says his side are still suffering from the effects of a late finish to last season and remain in "pre-season" mode.

Their opening match of the season, away to Brighton, was pushed back 48 hours to afford the Blues more preparation having not finished their 2019-20 campaign until August 8.

It ended with a 4-1 defeat at Bayern Munich in the Champions League, a week after losing the FA Cup final to Arsenal.

And Lampard feels his side are still struggling to get up to speed following a short pre-season.

Chelsea were knocked out of the Carabao Cup by Tottenham last night , losing on penalties after Erik Lamela's late equaliser cancelled out Timo Werner's first goal for the club.

Lampard was also without at least eight of his first team players for a period of their early preparations for the season after a large number of his squad were forced to quarantine after holidays, while the international break also interrupted pre-seasons at all clubs. The impact of a short and disrupted pre-season, Lampard says, was clear to see last night with Chelsea controlling the first half before falling away as Spurs worked their way back into the game after the break.

"Games at the minute, it is unfortunate to say it because the season has started, but we're not in full mode, we're in pre-season mode," Lampard said.

"We've got new players and not fit players. We had one week's pre-season going into [the first game of the season against] Brighton. We're in that position and it is difficult.

"I think you're seeing that with all the teams which stayed in Europe for those extra weeks, we had the FA Cup [final] and then Europe and we had to start like everybody else. I think you could see that a bit in the second half."

Chelsea defender Antonio Rudiger was again left out of Lampard's squad altogether last night and is attracting interest from Paris Saint-Germain.