Lamps Says Teams Poor Play Is Teams Fault Not Managers

Frank Lampard says that Chelsea can only blame themselves for slipping out of the Barclays Premier League title race, claiming that the team have “dropped their standards” in recent weeks.

“If you don’t play well enough then you don’t get results. It’s difficult now. You saw Blackburn against (Manchester) United, Sunderland against (Manchester) City. Teams aren’t mugs. They’re all set up very well and, if you’re not at your very best, you won’t win games. The brutal fact is that we haven’t been at our best since the renaissance of beating Valencia, in the Champions League, and Manchester City – good performances against top teams. But we dropped our standards again.”

When asked for the reasons behind the slump, Lampard said:

“It’s a mixture of things. Once you lose little bits, and get a couple of bad results, trying to turn that corner becomes even harder. Sometimes it takes a result like this against Wolves but we must carry on from here and keep that winning mentality, that fight and that desire. You saw that when the tackles were flying in during the first half. We stayed with it and we got what we deserved.”