Lampard: We cannot afford any more slip-ups

Frank Lampard has told his Chelsea team-mates they must start winning their ‘bread and butter games’ to get back in the title race.

Lampard scored the winner against Manchester City on Monday which earned the Stamford Bridge club a third consecutive Premier League win.

Chelsea have only slipped up against one team outside of the top six – losing 1-0 at QPR when they went down to nine men – with defeats at the hands of Manchester United, Liverpool and Arsenal halting their title bid.

However, Lampard, who has made no secret of his desire to regain his place in the starting line-up after his winning goal, believes it is the matches against the sides who are not pushing for European places which will be key to the side overhauling a seven-point gap to the top.

“A lot is made of beating and getting results the big teams and they are obviously our challengers and we need to do that at times,” he said.

“But we also need to win our bread and butter games. We have left ourselves in a position where we have to win pretty much all of them to get ourselves back in the race.”

“We can’t get too excited, because there is still a seven-point gap at the top.”

“We have got to keep our heads down. But seven points is far better than 13.”