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This season promises to be a hectic one in terms of fixture schedule, with Chelsea and other teams playing in Europe set to play a huge number of matches over the coming weeks.

This season, the Premier League has had to compress as many games within a shorter time frame, including also the FA Cup and League Cup, and with European football and international games also to be played.

For Chelsea, the Blues have to play 13 matches in 43 days, and Chelsea boss Frank Lampard is disappointed that Premier League clubs can’t be afforded the opportunity to make up to five changes.

Lampard has warned that this could lead to a lot of muscular injuries over the course of the campaign.

Lampard told the media: “We’ve been training with four players generally in these last two weeks,’ he explained. ‘The majority of our squad have been travelling, they will travel again to fly to Newcastle tomorrow and then back, they’ll fly to Rennes on Monday and then back.

“I’m concerned because you can see the muscle injuries are going up across the Premier League. The numbers are there if people want to go and look at them closely so it’s clear. There’s a correlation between game after game after game, zero pre-season, the schedule being tighter – it’s just common sense.”