Blues manager Frank Lampard admitted that he would be “a fool” to say Chelsea can catch Liverpool and Manchester City anytime soon, but he is confident with new signings they can challenge for the Premier League title once again.
Due to Chelsea being under a transfer embargo when Lampard initially took charge of the club ahead of the 2019-20 season, the former England midfielder has relied heavily on academy products during his debut campaign at Stamford Bridge in the dug out
Lampard was reportedly eager to bolster his squad in the January transfer market but surprisingly no new signings arrived at the West London club. Despite the limitations of the transfer ban, Lampard has managed to get Chelsea to a fourth-place spot in the Premier League just before the season was suspended due to the coronavirus pandemic.
However, leaders of the pack Liverpool have 34 more points than Chelsea and Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City are nine clear off fourth.
Lampard is adamant about being patient and guiding Chelsea to the level of the top two but is confident they will get there with time.
While speaking to Sky Sports, the 41-year-old former Chelsea midfielder claimed that he is always willing to learn from his mistakes but is content with the start made by Chelsea this season, “I think I’m always the first to criticize myself, look at what we could have done better. You can always lean on certain games, certain results; I think you kind of has to get beyond that. It’s more thinking I’m pretty happy with being in the fourth position, It was always going to be a competitive, difficult year for us to be in and around that top four and we’re there at the moment. It’s more about how can we progress from here?”
Lampard further explained that Chelsea has some youth but have been searching for consistency at times in order to maintain a solid run of results, “We know we have some youth, we know we’ve been searching at times for consistency. So really, I’ve been looking and saying, ‘Yeah, I’m happy with where we’re at but I want a lot more.”
