Frank Lampard admitted Everton's injury situation could force the club's hand in the transfer market, as he revealed Ben Godfrey had suffered a suspected fractured fibula in the Premier League defeat to Chelsea.
Jorginho's first-half penalty was enough to give Thomas Tuchel's Blues a 1-0 win at Goodison Park on Saturday, ending their run of four consecutive league defeats on the ground.
While Chelsea were indebted to Edouard Mendy for preserving their clean sheet with fine saves from James Tarkowski, Demarai Gray and Abdoulaye Doucoure, Lampard's side were hampered by injury problems on the opening day of the new campaign.
Having already been left without a recognised striker through Dominic Calvert-Lewin's injury and Salomon Rondon's suspension, the Toffees saw Godfrey leave the pitch on a stretcher following an ugly collision with Kai Havertz, before Yerry Mina was also forced off after 70 minutes.
After seeing Everton lose their opening league game for the first time since 2011-12 (v Queens Park Rangers), Lampard bemoaned their selection woes and revealed Godfrey's injury is thought to be serious.
"It makes it hard, you know? Ben gets that injury, we think it's a small fracture of his leg, his fibula," he told Sky Sports.
"We'll see how long that will be, and Yerry, it's an ankle injury that we don't know much about at the moment.
"We've had that here a little bit; it's hard to put your finger on those freak injuries. I think Ben's foot was caught in the grass, Yerry's I didn't see. They're not muscle injuries, they're freak injuries, so we have to make sure the squad is strong enough to handle those things."
Asked whether the setbacks would impact Everton's recruitment plans, Lampard added: "Maybe, maybe not. We've got centre-backs at the club, but we're looking at different areas where we know what we want to do.
"We're not going to declare them now, but I think everyone can feel that there's movement and that we're trying to move in the right direction.
"My main focus today is the performance of the lads that were on the pitch. You saw the fans at the end of the game, they responded to what the players did today.
"It's one game out of 38 and we didn't get the point that I felt we probably could've got, but we have to take confidence in not only what the players did out there today, but in how we're going to look going forward, because we're looking to bring in a few players to help the squad."
One area in which Everton are certainly targeting reinforcements is in attack, with Calvert-Lewin expected to miss up to six weeks after suffering a knee injury in training.
Lampard insists replacing Calvert-Lewin, who scored 16 goals in 33 Premier League appearances during the 2020-21 campaign, is crucial after Everton squandered opportunities to snatch a point against Chelsea.
"We're looking at that, because Dominic being out three days before the first game and you can't replace him, Salomon's suspended… We need to look at that to make sure that we've got not just adequate players to play, but players to bring in," he added.
"We've got nine subs now, you look at Chelsea's bench and you understand the difference.
"I think our overall performance deserves us to put the ball in the net once or twice, and of course we'll look for those types of players."
Silva grateful Fulham's dominance was rewarded with late win
Marco Silva believes Fulham claimed a "deserved win" against Brentford, though admits they should have secured the three points much earlier in their 2-1 victory.
It looked like Vitaly Janelt's 24th-minute strike against the run of play was going to wrap up all three points for Brentford, but Harry Wilson proved the Cottagers' hero off the bench, scoring twice in stoppage time to snatch the three points.
Fulham had dominated from the first whistle and had 26 shots, 12 of which were on target, though they struggled to find a way past their opponents' staunch defence until the 92nd minute.
Wilson became just the sixth player to score an equalising and match-winning goal from the 90th minute onwards in the Premier League, while his second goal was Fulham's latest-ever Premier League winner at 96:46.
Silva was delighted with how his team pushed until the final seconds to ensure they came away with a win.
"It was definitely a deserved win. We started on the front foot and dominated all the game. In the first 20 minutes, we had two clear chances to score," Silva told BBC Sport.
"After they scored, we didn't lose the confidence and the trust in ourselves, we kept pushing them back, and we created enough to not be losing at half-time.
"I told the players this is football, it can happen, but we have to keep pushing, working hard and playing our way.
"It was late, it should've been much before, but that's football."
Brentford, meanwhile, have now dropped a league-high 14 points from winning positions in the Premier League as they suffered a fifth consecutive away defeat in the competition.
In fact, they are the first side in the competition's history to score the first goal in four consecutive away games and lose all four.
They had defended resolutely until their late lapse in concentration, and even had a chance to win it, only for Bernd Leno's impressive save to keep out Fabio Carvalho in the 95th minute.
Thomas Frank, though, admitted he was not yet ready to take the positives from the performance after the disappointment of their late defeat.
"It was tough. It is emotionally very tough right now," Frank told Sky Sports.
"When you are leading in the 92nd minute, and you lose, it is tough. I don't think we hit our highest level. I think on the day Fulham were better.
"There was a lot of good defending and effort, and I thought that would have given us the win. We could have won it with the chance for Fabio Carvalho and then we lost.
"When we look at the game back, and we are more cool-headed, we will probably be very happy with the defensive standard. I thought there were unbelievable blocks, and recovery runs and all that we did well. On the ball, we didn't do enough."
Guardiola expecting challenging season for injury-hit Man City
Pep Guardiola believes Manchester City's current injury problems will make it harder for them to repeat the success of recent years.
Depleted by a number of injuries to key players, the Premier League champions saw a 32-game unbeaten league run ended by a loss at Bournemouth on Saturday after a midweek reverse at Tottenham in the EFL Cup fourth round, marking the first time City have lost successive matches in all competitions since September 2023.
While Guardiola says he is aware of the expectations surrounding his team, he knew they were likely to suffer more defeats due to injuries and the increasing level of their opponents.
"I know our standards, but we've lost just one game. Maybe we are going to lose again in the Premier League against Brighton and against Tottenham and against Liverpool," Guardiola told reporters, referring to their next three Premier League games.
"We are just two points behind Liverpool, who are a top-class team. We've started well in the Champions League, but I know people expect us to win 38 league games and win the treble every season as these are our standards.
"The reason it is difficult is because we have had a lot of absentees, which can happen in some seasons.
"Sometimes, to win the treble, everything has to be on the same page with injuries, but this is not possible this time. The teams are very strong and everything is more difficult, and we have to accept that. That is the challenge."
City will be without Ballon d'Or winner Rodrigo and Oscar Bobb for most of the campaign, while John Stones, Jack Grealish and Ruben Dias remain sidelined and have not travelled to Portugal.
Manuel Akanji, Nathan Ake and Kyle Walker still have problems despite being in the squad, Guardiola said, and Kevin De Bruyne and Savinho are improving, while Erling Haaland is fit.
City sit third in the Champions League standings after two wins and a draw and are looking for a third consecutive European win at Portuguese champions Sporting CP, who are eighth but also have seven points and are unbeaten across all competitions this season.
Guardiola's side claimed a resounding 5-0 win at Sporting when they met in the 2022 Champions League last 16, and are looking to extend their record run of unbeaten games to 27 in the competition.
"They play quite similar like we faced two seasons ago, the pattern is so clear," Guardiola added.
"They have changed players but have the same manager and same mentality," he said, referring to Sporting boss Ruben Amorim, who will take over at Manchester United at the start of the international break.
Neymar suffers fresh injury blow
Neymar sustained a new injury as he was forced off during Al-Hilal's AFC Champions League Elite win over Esteghlal.
Aleksandar Mitrovic plundered a hat-trick on Monday to seal a 3-0 win.
But Al-Hilal's victory was soured by an injury to Neymar, who had to make way just 29 minutes after he came on as a second-half substitute.
The Brazilian, who has just returned from over a year out of action following a serious knee injury, was forced off with what appeared to be a thigh issue.
Indeed, Monday's appearance was only the 32-year-old's second for Al-Hilal since his comeback.
He has featured just seven times for the Saudi Pro League champions in all competitions since his big-money move from Paris Saint-Germain in 2023.
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