Lampard warns Chelsea have ‘a lot of work to do’ despite good first week back

With two wins out of two since the restart of the Premier League (plus a win in the FA Cup quarterfinals), Chelsea have maintained a bit of breathing room in the top-four race, five points to be exact, while also closing the gap to Leicester City in third to just one point.

But there are still seven games left — or rather, “finals” — which could change drastically the outcome of Chelsea’s season and our participation in next season’s Champions League. In turn, that could play a significant role in attracting new quality players in the transfer window.

And while the results have been good, the performances themselves have been inconsistent at best, sometimes within games themselves, showing many of the same issues that plagued the team before the lockdown. So while Lampard’s been happy with the results, he knows there’s plenty of room for improvement.

"I’m happy to win games and with elements of the games we’ve played, particularly the first two. We have to keep working along the same lines. We have to focus on every part of our game, particularly the defensive and work ethic aspects.

"It’s been a mixture of coming to terms with new surroundings, and the very short pre-season we had. It’s not normal. I know from being a player myself the first one or two games of pre-season you’re normally feeling your way in. Sharpness is not always there, and sometimes it takes players a bit of time to get up to speed for those fine margins in the game, the extra five per cent that maybe makes games more sharp in the attacking sense.

"We have to focus on what’s ahead rather than what’s gone before. We’ve had a good week but we’ve got a lot of work to do."

-Frank Lampard; source: Chelsea FC

With Chelsea facing one of the tougher schedules in the top six, including away games in the next three of four matchdays, focus must be maintained. It would be a shame to throw away all the good work in the first part of the season in the final month.