Lampard wants more quality

Frank Lampard has pointed to a “lack of quality” as being one of the key reasons why Chelsea have struggled in the Premier League in recent weeks.

The England midfielder, whose two goals helped Chelsea to a thumping 7-0 victory over Championship outfit Ipswich in the FA Cup third round, is now looking for the team to turn around their fortunes in the league.

They have won just once in their last nine league outings which has seen the club slump to fifth in the table and Lampard, when asked about that run of poor form, said: “There are quite a few reasons for that, a lack of confidence being one of them.

“But there has also been a lack of quality and workrate. We need to step it up across the board to get back to where we want to be.

“Everyone at Chelsea understands we’re not expected to have the run of results we’ve had. We have high standards and the results we’ve had in the past two months is not the level we expect.

“The league games we have coming up are very important and we need to take the spirit and energy we showed against Ipswich, which has maybe been lacking before, into the next few matches.”
Injury

One of the significant factors behind Chelsea’s struggles has been the absence of the influential Lampard due to a hernia and groin problem for the best part of four months.

The injury was at first thought to be minor but with the benefit of hindsight Lampard admits he should have been more patient during his rehabilitation.

“It (the injury) was not misdiagnosed,” he admitted. “It was probably a little bit my fault. It is always easy with hindsight but now I would have had a lot more rest when I first did the injury.

“I was trying to push to be fit for games when I should have waited for my body to naturally heal. When you think you are going to be back every week and people keep asking you that, and then you’re not, it becomes even more frustrating.

“Some of the weeks, particularly in the middle of it, I couldn’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.”