Chelsea boss Roberto di Matteo is unsure of buying a new midfielder in January.

Di Matteo was asked bout dipping into the transfer market to compensate for the loss of John Mikel Obi, who will be involved in the African Cup of Nations in January.

"Ramires can do a lot of defending, he's maybe not a holding midfielder but he can play there," said the manager. "When Lampard was playing there he did a very good job in offering protection as well, it's a question of chipping in.

"We have Oriol Romeu, who's been playing a bit more lately and started against Swansea last week, but we'll have to wait and see in January. Hopefully Lampard will be back soon so that will give us another option in there."