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Frank Lampard is set for an emotional return to Stamford Bridge in January with Manchester City after it was revealed that his stay at the Etihad has been extended. Lampard, who became a Chelsea legend during 13 years there, was close to tears after coming off the bench to score a dramatic equaliser against his old club on Sunday. And the 36-year-old will now be available for the return at Stamford Bridge on January 31 after it was decided that he will move to Major League Soccer and join City’s US affiliate New York City FC a month later than expected.

Club sources confirmed the move but insist there has been no major change of plan and that Lampard’s ‘loan’ has not been technically extended.
He was due to report for duty in New York in January to begin pre-season training, but City feel that it will benefit both teams if he stays in England longer – Manuel Pellegrini keeps an experienced midfielder at his disposal and Lampard will arrive in America in much better shape.

Asked earlier at his press conference to preview Wednesday’s Capital One Cup tie at home to Sheffield Wednesday, Pellegrini kept his cards close to his chest.
He said: “I can’t answer about that in this moment. Frank will stay until January because until January he doesn’t have anything to do in the United States because they are not working.
“In January, we will see what happens here and make a decision. It is not a problem in this moment.”

Pellegrini revealed that Sergio Aguero, David Silva and Samir Nasri picked up injuries against Chelsea and will miss Wednesday’s cup tie, although they would probably have been rested anyway.

Aguero and Silva could return for Saturday’s trip to Hull, as could Stevan Jovetic, but Nasri and Fernando are likely to miss out.
The City boss said: “For (Wednesday), not in the squad list, Sergio Aguero, who has a kick in his knee, David Silva has a problem in his ankle and Pablo Zabaleta is suspended. Fernando and Stevan Jovetic continue recovering from their injuries and Samir Nasri has a groin injury.

“I suppose that David and Sergio will recover without any problem for Saturday, maybe Stevan can be, I don’t know or if he cannot play on Saturday he will be ready for Tuesday and Fernando and Nasri may be (out) until next week.

“I think that all the players during this year, especially now we have to play seven games in 21 days, we have the opportunity to see what they can do. All of them are normally playing.
“The only one that was not playing was (Eliaquim) Mangala because he had to work and it was very important for him to get used to the way we defend and then to make his first appearance in our team and he did very well. The other is Scott Sinclair, for the moment he hasn’t played a game but all the other players are always playing normally.”

Pellegrini insisted that he did not mean to criticise Chelsea after Sunday’s 1-1 draw, saying they played “like a small team” by being so defensive.
He added: “I said that we played like a big team against a small team with very good players because all of them can defend. They can play how they want to. I am not criticising the way they play. Every team can play the way that thinks it is the best way to do it.

“We have the same problem against Stoke and Chelsea and we couldn’t resolve it, we must work more to resolve it. It is our problem that we must find a way to score.”
Asked if he was concerned about going four games without a win following the defeats to Bayern Munich and Stoke, and draws with Arsenal and Chelsea, Pellegrini said: “First of all, we were very unlucky not to win one of those games but when of course you don’t win, you have some problems and you must improve.

“But worried about the moment of the team? No, because I think we are not playing bad. Especially in the games against Arsenal and Chelsea we played really well.
“Maybe against Bayern we didn’t play the 90 minutes in the way I like the team to do it but it is not easy to play against Bayern away. We didn’t do a bad game. For the moment no but it is important for us to start adding three points in every game.” — Daily Mail