Lampard ready to fight for Chelsea future as pressure mounts with Man City loss
Frank Lampard insists he is ready to fight for his job after another defeat piled even more pressure on him.
Lampard suffered a fourth defeat in six Premier League games as Manchester City put on a first half masterclass with goals from Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Phil Foden.
Chelsea boss Lampard admitted he expects the heat to be on his position but insists he must be given time and it is unrealistic to make the club title contenders despite their £200m summer spending spree.
Lampard said: “But we have to keep fighting and I am the first one that has to keep fighting.
“I’ll always feel heat and I felt heat when we were on a good run because I knew that round the corner there could be a negative.
“I will never speak for people on the board. I can’t do that. As much as I can’t answer the questions ago if I would get a new contract, as much as I can’t answer now about the difficult run of results. I can only speak as I see it, as the manager of the club.
“There is never going to be an upward trajectory that goes up and up. When we had an unbeaten run of 16 games, great but I still saw the flaws. I still tried to work on them now as I am trying to do now. Nothing can distract me from that.”
Get the latest news straight into your inbox!
It has been a hectic season so far – so make sure you don't miss a single thing by signing up for the brilliant new Mirror Football newsletter!
All the latest transfer news and big stories will land straight into your inbox. You won't miss out.
To sign up, put your email at the top of this article or follow the instructions on this link.
Lampard is one of the club’s greatest ever players but he admits that he knows from his time back then that it was always going to be difficult.
Lampard added: “I understand it, I played here for a long time and the minute you lose games in a short period of time, then everyone looks and asks questions.
“The expectations are different this year because everyone says: ‘you spent this amount of money’ when the reality is that a lot of the players who have come in are new, young and have been injured. It’s the first time I’ve been able to play [Hakim] Ziyech, [Timo] Werner and [Christian] Pulisic in the same team.
Is it time for Chelsea to part ways with Frank Lampard? Have your say in the comments.
“If we’re expecting the relationship between them three the same as De Bruyne, [Raheem] Sterling and Bernardo Silva or whoever then those expectations are not real. I am the one being real.
“I was real after Leeds saying we’re not title contenders, I’m real now saying this club has to take some pain to get to where we want to be takes pain. It means pain behind the scenes, pain on the pitch and we have to show character.”
City boss Pep Guardiola said: “We played really well. Unfortunately the last goal but the result at Stamford Bridge is fantastic. Today we were back like we were two or three seasons ago. An important win at Chelsea away.
"The Premier League is weird for everything [this season]. Everything is weird, just have to be focused during the games but otherwise relax. Hopefully in the Premier League in the last six, seven games we can be there fighting.”
Sign up to the Mirror Football email here for the latest news and transfer gossip.
Source: Read Full Article