Chelsea boss Frank Lampard admits new signings Hakim Ziyech, Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell are out of their Premier League opener against Brighton.

The Blues have splashed out more than £200million on new recruits in this transfer window, outlining serious ambitions for the Premier League title, but while many fans would have been excited to see their new stars in action, the Chelsea legend said a large handful of them would have to wait for their debuts.

Speaking at a press conference ahead of their season opener against the Seagulls, he said: "[Hakim] Ziyech took an injury to his knee in the friendly against Brighton, he won't be fit. We're working with him and hoping it's a matter of weeks. We'll have to see on that one.

"Ben Chilwell is working towards fitness but won't be fit either, but he's improved which is good news for us. Thiago Silva is in London but not training with us until the weekend. I doubt very much he'll be in contention."

Lampard insists he has no desire to talk about 'making statements' this season and that Chelsea will always face pressure no matter what business they do.

But he urged caution and said new stars, such as Timo Werner need time to settle into the club

"I think the pressure on me to do better should be the standard that comes with the territory of this job. I dont wanna talk about us making statements.

"The players we brought in will get a lot of talk, it becomes a good news story, but it was more about last year. We were very happy to get top four, we fought hard we know we had a transfer ban.

"The fact we've improved the team, we should be excited - but we need caution, we need to work with the new players to get them settled into the team. We want to work upwards and the work starts now."