Chelsea 'can do a lot more'
Lampard not getting carried away with fine early display, wants more consistency
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Kurt Zouma celebrating after scoring Chelsea's second goal with (from left) Thiago Silva, Olivier Giroud and Reece James, as Timo Werner rushes to join in. The Blues beat Leeds 3-1 in front of 2,000 fans at Stamford Bridge.
PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON • Frank Lampard believes there is even more to come from Chelsea, after the Blues temporarily moved to the top of the Premier League with a 3-1 win over Leeds on the night 2,000 fans returned to Stamford Bridge for the first time since March.
Patrick Bamford's early opener against his former club threatened to rip up the script but the home fans finally got a long-awaited glimpse of why the new-look Blues are considered to be title contenders.
Goals from Olivier Giroud, who was rewarded for his four-goal haul against Sevilla last week with his first Premier League start of the season, Kurt Zouma and substitute Christian Pulisic extended their unbeaten run to 16 games (nine in the league).
Saturday's win took Lampard's men - reinforced by a £220 million (S$394.3 million) spending spree in the summer - a point clear of Tottenham and Liverpool, who both played yesterday.
The Blues ended the day at the top of the league table for the first time since September 2018. And while there is still more than two-thirds of the season to go, Chelsea fans on social media feel the team are in a position to land their first league title since 2016-17.
Asked if he shared the same confidence, Blues boss Lampard said: "There's certainly nothing wrong with the fans thinking that. It's great to have them back, their input was huge, the noise huge. You can see how excited they are at the end that we are top of the league.
"My job and our job is to know that it's a long season and the next question is how consistent can we be with this form, how much we can improve, because I believe there is a lot more we can do and there will be a lot of challenges ahead.
"We are a (team in) progression. When you bring in new players and have young players, people moving to a new country, different city, different teammates, it takes time. I think there is more uplift in us.
"Whether it is this season we can get to real heights... we don't know. It's a long season. Consistency is our next challenge but we're moving in the right direction."
Bamford, who never made a first-team appearance in five years at Chelsea, became only the third player in the past 11 games in all competitions to score past Edouard Mendy.
However, that was as good as Leeds got, with Chelsea's superior class eventually showing.
6
Consecutive Premier League games in which Olivier Giroud has scored as a starter.
The only downside to the comprehensive victory was an injury to Hakim Ziyech in the build-up to their equaliser, but Pulisic's return - the forward made just his fifth appearance of the season - has softened the blow.
"It is a hamstring, we will find out the severity in the next couple of days," said Lampard. "It is obviously a disappointment going into this busy period. It's been a difficult period for him (Pulisic)... He has an incredible gift... arriving in the six-yard box as a wide man."
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS