Chelsea kicked off their Champions League campaign this week with a 1-0 loss to Valencia at home meaning the Blues will have to sweat it out for the remainder of the group games.
Chelsea have been put in a rather tough group alongside the likes of Lille, Ajax and Valencia so in order to make it to the next round, Lampard’s men have to ensure they pick up wins in atleast their next four games in Europe.
Right now though, the Blues will have to divert all their focus back to the Premier League where they take on Liverpool at home on Sunday.
While the home fans will be optimistic going into this match but Gary Neville believes they shouldn’t be keeping their hopes too high – especially in regards to winning a silverware this season.
‘Manchester United have spent nearly £900m since Sir Alex retired, £900m, and there have been times in the last five, six years where I’ve gone to the ground and I’ve not liked the team,’ he said(as quoted by The Metro).
‘I actually like this team, and there’s a bit of that in Chelsea. I actually look at this Chelsea team, with Hudson-Odoi and Loftus-Cheek to come back, Mount, Abraham, there’s players in there – three academy players on Saturday.
‘I’ve been crying out for seven or eight years to see Chelsea bring young players through into the first team.
‘What we can’t do now – after we’ve been crying out in that way – is then all of sudden when they don’t quite deliver Champions League success or deliver Premier League titles, is start whinging about it.
‘I actually like what’s happening at Chelsea. I think that it’s the right move.
‘They’ve had a great youth system for the last 10 years, it’s about time it was started to be blooded.
‘And that means the fans will start to like the team more, but they’re maybe going to have to accept that they’re potentially not going to be winning Premier League titles.’
VERDICT:
Lampard’s main focus this season will be too keep Chelsea in the top four and if the manager has managed to do that by the end of May next year then most certainly it will be a job well done.
And as for challenging for the Premier League, the Blues will only walk towards that path once they are able to sign new players next summer.
