Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has admitted he is preparing to confront his Chelsea players after their slump in form following the recent international break with Sunday’s 3-1 loss at Everton the latest setback.
the Blues have only won one of their last five games losing to Manchester City, West Ham and Everton, and failing to keep a clean sheet in that time.
They remain in the top four in the Premier League, sitting five points clear of Manchester United and Wolves, while Tottenham is a point further adrift. But head coach Lampard is eager for Chelsea to learn from their defeats to teams sitting in the bottom half.
“Hurt is not the word. I want to win. If I was here smiling and saying how well we played you would think I was crazy. We should be better than that,” Lampard said at Goodison Park after the defeat.
“There are home truths all the time, whatever game you play. The players need to consistently hear that. We have got a good bunch and a good group there. In the Premier League, the competitive nature of it, there are going to be times where you have difficult patches or you lose games.
“It is certainly not the end of the world, but it is important that we take on board the lessons of games like today and West Ham. We have had a week where we were poor, fantastic and poor again. That lack of consistency is not going to get us where we want to be.”
Chelsea must next beat Lille at Stamford Bridge on Tuesday to ensure that qualification for the knockout round of the Champions League remains in their own hands.
If Chelsea loses on Tuesday coupled with Valencia also beating Ajax will mean that Chelsea will be knocked out of the Champions League.
Lampard will be hoping that he has Rudiger fit for Tuesday’s clash after Chelsea’s defensive crisis this season that has seen them keep 4 clean sheets all season.
