Frank
Lampard believes the Chelsea hierarchy fully understand their place in an
ever-changing Premier League.
With Manchester City and Liverpool coming to the fore in recent years,
Lampard insists owner Roman Abramovich and director Marina Granovskaia share
his views on the Blues' route back to the top.
Chelsea face Bournemouth at the Vitality Stadium on Saturday as they
continue to scrap for fourth place, with Champions League qualification set
to go down to the wire.
"I think the landscape of the Premier League has changed," said Lampard.
"Manchester City and Liverpool have set incredible standards in the league,
and also we had some outside influences with the [transfer] ban and with
circumstance, a huge player [Eden Hazard] left the club. Those things are
there.
"We are certainly on the same page here when I speak with the board and we
have all our conversations, there is no doubt we know we are fighting for
fourth place."
Lampard won three Premier League titles in the heart of Chelsea's midfield,
but believes the task of securing any more from the dugout could be more
challenging.
"It is a very dated phrase, when people say 'you are Chelsea, there is no
way you should be happy with fourth'; no, the Premier League has changed,"
added Lampard.
"It is not like it was for Manchester United players 15 or 20 years ago, or
Chelsea players when we were first or second for a period in the mid-2000s.
"It's not like that anymore and that is the reality. But what we must do is
make the fans proud every time we play, show we are fighting to get better
and better and better, try and win as many games as we can.
"I don't think anyone can deny that we have done that this year. At times we
have fallen short for little reasons, in terms of those standards.
"We do want to climb and bridge the gap and I strongly believe we will. But
I am very aware of what that is. The players need to be aware of it and we
are as a club.
"We have to be real, we have to be honest. We can't pull the wool over our
own eyes and think all of a sudden we have a divine right at this level to
go up against Bayern Munich and beat them, and move onto the quarters and
beat them.
"No, there is a reason why we are where we are at the moment. We have not
challenged in the Premier League for a couple of years. We want to close
that gap.
"We have to fight and work as hard as we can on the training pitch and in
games to close that gap. Come the summer, of course as a club we want to
move forward and make some decisions.
"But the gap is there. And Tuesday [the 3-0 home defeat to Bayern Munich]
showed that a bit. But that should not dishearten us; it's where we are at.
Now it's how we finish the season."
As well as facing a struggle to secure a top-four finish in the Premier
League, Lampard is also battling to keep Willian at Stamford Bridge.
The Brazil forward is claiming he wants a three-year deal with Chelsea only
offering two, but Lampard is refusing to give up hope on keeping him at the
club.
"It's an ongoing conversation," said Lampard.
"I don't want to get too drawn into it because I am the manager of the team
and don't want to look too far down towards the summer.
"We are working day to day to finish the job this season and we are not
jumping ahead to the summer. But Willy's one is an ongoing situation. It's
not over. We'll see."
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