'The most potent front three in England' - Lampard wary of Rashford, Martial & Greenwood threat

Frank Lampard is aware of the threat posed by Manchester United's in-form front three and has called for his Chelsea side to be confident in their ability to handle them in Sunday's FA Cup semi-final clash.

Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford both reached 17 Premier League goals for the 2019-20 season as they netted against Crystal Palace on Thursday, while Mason Greenwood has also emerged as a significant goalscoring threat.

And Lampard has identified the attacking prowess of the trio, accepting that stopping them, and midfielder Bruno Fernandes, will be vital to his side's chances of winning at Wembley.

He told reporters: "We know they are playing well, they've got a very, very potent front three, probably the most potent front three in the country, in terms of pure numbers and goals.

"And obviously Fernandes has made a huge difference coming in in January. So you see the strength that has brought to their team with individual quality.

"But we know that. So we have to be confident ourselves, deal with their threats, and worry about us as well."

United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has expressed his frustration at the fact that the Red Devils have less time to prepare for Sunday's fixture, with their Premier League win at Palace being played two days after Chelsea's victory over Norwich City.

Lampard doesn't agree, however, insisting that with both sides having played twice this week, it is a level playing field.

He added: "No, I don’t think we do [have an advantage]. We played Saturday/Tuesday this week, they played Monday/Thursday so we have both played two games this week as it stands.

"We are in a period where we are playing games very regularly and it becomes; play, recover, play again and recover and you work with the squad as it is.

"It’s an age-old question for a lot of managers. You can probably dig out times where I have mentioned it, but at the same time it isn’t about having an advantage or not. Sometimes it is in your favour playing regularly and keeping ticking over, so no I don’t see it."

The Blues boss also ruled N'Golo Kante out of the match as he continues to recover from injury. He said: "Kante won't be fit for the match, he's still not right. So he's out.

"Other than that we have a few people with a few little niggles that I'll monitor over the next 24 hours or so, and then we'll be ready to go."