Lampard talks up Jorginho and Tammy Abraham ahead of Sheffield United top-six showdown

Chelsea are on an impressive run of six wins out of seven in the Premier League — second best record of Project Restart after Manchester United! — which has seen the Blues climb into third place for the first time since November, one point ahead of Leicester City in fourth and two points ahead of United in fifth.

While Chelsea do carry this positive momentum going into the game against Sheffield United, who are just a point below sixth place Wolves, Lampard is aware that one negative result could undo all the good work at this point. Each game is just as important as the last, and as the next.

“It’s easy to bring up momentum and I probably have done because I’ve been asked about it a lot. But I don’t fully believe in it, I believe in the next game that comes.

“So even though we’ve had some good results of late generally, you’re only as good as your next game, that’s the important one in front of us, so we are in charge of our own destiny on that side of things. So we’re not reverting back to previous results we’re looking to Sheffield United and onwards."

In Tuesday’s 3-2 win over Crystal Palace, Lampard opted to start teenager Billy Gilmour at the base of midfield, overlooking the team’s Vice-captain, Jorginho, just as he had been since the restart. But with Gilmour getting injured in the game and now set to miss the next four months, Jorginho will have to step back in, just as he did late on Tuesday when he immediately elevated Chelsea's quality of possession and passing.

Jorginho added much needed calmness and direction into midfield, helping Chelsea see out the game ... until the last few minutes when everything suddenly turned quite eventful. But, it still showed Jorginho's usefulness to the team and he probably put himself back in Lampard's plans, at least for the time being.

That's Chelsea's Jorginho for you, an epitome of professionalism. Lampard didn't shy away from acknowledging the same, although he didn’t exactly guarantee a start with Mateo Kovačić set to be available once again as well.

"I am very pleased and it is what I expect of players at the club. There is no way you go through a season without moments, moments possibly out of the team, moments that are difficult individually and you have to have toughness as a squad collectively and individually. Hence why I made the move to make him vice-captain when I came in because I saw that in his personality.

"I thought he did well when he came on the other day, it was exactly what I wanted from him at that stage of the game. To take control, to drive on with his quality of pass, which he has done for a huge part of this season for us. So yeah, I was very pleased with him

"We will see in terms of selection. I don’t want to start talking about the team yet. I don’t think there is a point to prove. I have spoken about him before the last game and there is no point to prove for Jorginho. He proves it in training and when he plays in games for me. Simply, these things are selection. I hope there isn’t a point to prove as such and we see the usual Jorginho."

In other welcome news, Tammy Abraham broke his 10-match goal drought with a fine finish in the last game, which turned out to be the match-winner as well. It was a much needed goal for him as he had looked low in confidence since the restart.

It has been speculated that Timo Werner's signing might have broken Tammy's confidence a bit, but Lampard’s not having any of that. The head coach instead paid tribute to the youngster’s hard work in training to get past this bad patch.

“I haven’t seen much and that is not to say there might not have been a change because Tammy in his personality is a very positive lad. He trains well, good around the group and that hasn’t changed. I know beyond that there are sometimes feelings for a player, especially a goalscorer who is having a tough time in front of goal.

“We had a conversation before the Palace game, so I was particularly delighted to see him break that against them. I hope there is an uplift for him, I hope his confidence has taken a nice boost and we’ll see.”

-Frank Lampard; source: Football.London

Let's hope Tammy and the team have a lot more goals in them to see Chelsea over the top-four finishing line!