Friday, 2 March 2012

Pots and Kettles at Chelsea


David Luiz has denied criticising Chelsea team-mate Frank Lampard after insisting his comments had been taken out of context.

Lampard's relationship with Chelsea manager Andre Villas-Boas has come under scrutiny of late after the experienced midfielder was left out of the starting line-up for last week's UEFA Champions League defeat by Napoli.

After scoring against Bolton Wanderers upon his return to the team last weekend, Lampard acknowledged there had been 'certain issues', although he stressed he did not want to focus on individual relationships.

Luiz, who has been on international duty, appeared to step into the matter after being quoted by Portuguese newspaper O Jogo regarding Lampard's situation with Villas-Boas.

Claiming Luiz had criticised Lampard, O Jogo quoted him as saying: "No one has to be someone's father or son in a football club.

"There are no privileged people there. He simply has to listen to the coach when he gives orders and take them.

"No player can forget that they are just an employee of the club."

However, Luiz has moved to defuse any possibility of tension at Stamford Bridge after insisting he was speaking generally, rather than specifically about Lampard.

Luiz tweeted on Thursday afternoon: "This is media, Frank know me, and I never said about him! I said generaly! I only talked about coaches and players in general. Always CFC."