Chelsea manager Lampard: West Ham defeat shows why we’re not top two material

Frank Lampard reckons that Chelsea’s 3-2 defeat to West Ham on Wednesday night was a prime example of why his side are not top-two material.

Andriy Yarmolenko scored an 89th-minute winner for the east London hosts to give their survival hopes a massive shot in the arm.

The Blues are back in action on Saturday evening as they host Watford. Manchester United and Wolves are two points behind them in fifth and sixth respectively as the race for the final Champions League berth hots up.

“We dominated the game in terms of possession, but make mistakes and teams will hurt you,” said Lampard.

“I’m not happy with any of the goals. You don’t get given victories for scoring two goals, you have to be better than that.

“There were moments they counter-attacked, which we knew they would. There were details in the game which we knew but we lost because we didn’t get them right. Against West Ham you have to make recovery runs. That is the bit we got wrong.

“It is why we are fighting for top four not one or two, because we don’t get things right as much as the big boys do. I am not happy but at the same time we are two points ahead of Manchester United, who have been going great for some time.

“If you don’t get details right in big games, you’re going to drop points. At times we have played really well this season. As a group we need to find more consistency.

“I would not call it a wake-up call, because every game is different. We have six games ahead of us now and this was not a huge surprise as if you play in the Premier League and you make mistakes, if you dominate possession but you don’t quite do enough with it in the top end of the pitch, then it can happen.

“We made mistakes in the build-up to the goals, not just defenders, which cost us the game.”