Match against West Ham holds massive importance, says Lampard
Dec 20, 2020
London [UK], December 20 : After facing two back to back defeats, Chelsea manager Frank Lampard said their upcoming Premier League clash against West Ham holds "massive importance" as the club looks to get back to winning ways.
"It's of massive importance. It's going to be a big test of the players, a test of myself, because it's my job first to pick the players up," the club's official website quoted Lampard as saying.
"What I saw of the two games, against Everton and Wolves, it was things we were doing really well before, against Leeds particularly, and everyone says we are in great form and wants to talk us up, and we just dropped a level for two games and got punished," he added.
For the first time in over a year, the Blues lost consecutive fixtures in the Premier League after away defeats at Everton and Wolverhampton Wanderers, having previously gone nine games unbeaten in the competition.
Chelsea currently hold the eighth position on the table with 22 points, nine points behind the table-toppers Liverpool. Lampard stressed that his side needs to keep their confidence high going into the next game.
"The basic demands of football are high-speed runs, sprints and being competitive, and we dropped our level 15 or 20 per cent, and in the Premier League that happens. So the understanding of it for me is clear," he said.
"The confidence has to remain because we were playing very well, the table's very tight at the top, we are much closer to the top than we were last year. So we just need to remind ourselves a little bit of all the great things we were doing before these two games," Lampard added.
Chelsea will take on West Ham on Tuesday.
