Lampard: We can cope

Frank Lampard is adamant Chelsea can cope without injured duo John Terry and Didier Drogba.

Terry and Drogba missed Sunday's FA Community Shield at Wembley because of injury.

Terry is understood to have sustained a knee ligament injury which is expected to sideline him for up to four weeks.

Drogba's injury is not as serious and the Ivory Coast ace is set to be back to full fitness in 10 days.

The duo are joined in the Chelsea treatment room by Salomon Kalou, Andrei Shevchenko, Claude Makelele, Michael Ballack and Claudio Pizarro, Glen Johnson and Florent Malouda, leaving Jose Mourinho with an injury headache ahead of this weekend's Premier League opener with Birmingham.

The Blues struggled without some of their injured stars last season, but Lampard believes they have enough strength in depth to cover for any absent players.

Injuries

"In terms of injuries, we are not in the best of shape," said Lampard. "There are quite a few people in the treatment room, which is not ideal.

"But we are calling on a bit of character early and have got a very strong group.

"We all know our plans and our ambitions. We are all getting ready for it now.

"We have got a strong team with a lot of personalities and have a lot of experience from years gone by. The players we have brought in also have experience, so we can go into the season with confidence."

Lampard believes Tal Ben Haim will be able to deputise for Terry at the back after impressing in the Community Shield.

"We have got more cover for John now than last season. I think Ben Haim did very well," added Lampard.

"Hopefully we will not miss John that much until he can be fit. Hopefully, that will not be too long because it is quite a small injury in terms of his knee.

"The strength John has got in himself, I am sure he will be back out there in a couple of weeks.

"We are all upset if we have got major players who are not playing - but you cannot cry about it, you just have to deal with it."

Lampard is expecting a tough battle for the Premier League title and knows there is little margin for error.

Battle

"You cannot afford to sleep," noted Lampard."This year is going to be more competitive than ever. The big four are there ready for a good start. You cannot afford to fall behind, it is as simple as that.

"There will be that feeling of trying to get something back that we want.

"We had it fairly easy for a couple of years where we won comfortably. Now it is a great challenge to all of us to try to win it back."