Lampard looking for consistency before any talk of a Chelsea title challenge

Except for a penalty shootout, Chelsea have lost just one match all season, in a dozen tries, and that to the defending Premier League champions. It feels like this lede is getting a bit worn out, but it’s a fairly remarkable record considering the increased pressures (from all angles), the defensive wobbles, and all the new faces who were thrown together this summer without much of a preseason at all.

The number of (extremely silly) draws also takes away some of the luster — not quite to the extent of Guus Hiddink’s 2015-16 interim “unbeaten” run (6 wins, 6 draws), but 5 wins and 5 draws in a ten-match unbeaten run isn’t going to win many awards ... or trophies for that matter.

Three wins and five clean sheets on the bounce do raise the mood, but that’s still just the start: something to build from, with consistency and focus. And that’s precisely what the head coach is looking for, at either end of the pitch.

“There are always different parts to it; the work we do on the training ground, which we’ve always done, we’ve been very focused [and] we must never relax on that point, we must keep going...”

“We need to find a consistency in performances that we’ve found in recent games and take that forward.”

With all top teams struggling to a certain extent to put together consistent performances in the early season, Chelsea are just four points off the top of the table heading into the eighth weekend — four most silly points that were dropped in 3-3 draws against West Brom and Southampton. As frustrating as that may be, there’s little use in crying over them. Those points aren’t coming back, but there are certainly plenty more left to gain. Gain enough of those, and we just might be pushing for more than just a top-four finish.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

“It all remains to be seen, it will all be on what is ahead of us. You only focus on yourself. [We] know maybe there could have been some points that we have lost to this point which are a frustration. [But] we just have to focus on ourselves. At the moment it’s close.”

-Frank Lampard; source: Football.London

What is ahead of us right now are Sheffield United, and three points that must stay at Stamford Bridge.