Chelsea manager Frank Lampard has responded to the surprise recent claims from Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp on the Blues looking the favourites for this season’s Premier League title.
The west Londoners strengthened well over the summer with big-name signings like Kai Havertz, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech, Ben Chilwell, Thiago Silva and Edouard Mendy, and it looks to have made a real difference for Lampard.
The young coach took over a struggling Chelsea side last season and found the club under a transfer ban when he arrived, meaning he relied a lot on their academy players.
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Still, Lampard did well to get Chelsea into the top four and the FA Cup final, and his side may now really be genuine contenders to win the title for the first time since 2017.
The Metro quote Klopp as tipping CFC to be major players in this season’s race, and they also quote Lampard as responding to the German tactician’s comments, discussing whether or not it might be mind games and naming the other teams in contention.
“I think Liverpool and Manchester City seem to be pretty much everyone’s favourite when they perform like they have for the last three years and build up the squads like they have for the last three or four years. Quite rightly so,” Lampard said.
“Even with injuries, when you look at Liverpool’s squad and the team they put out last night to cover those injuries.
“They have a big squad and most teams at the top of the Premier League do. Tottenham are in the equation and so are Manchester United and so are others, it’s very tight.”
When asked about Klopp playing mind games, he responded: “I don’t know. He can have his opinion on whether it is that (Chelsea being favourites) or not, I don’t know.
“But I think it’s pretty clear where we’re at. We’re in good form at the moment but we have players that have just come in, some younger players, some players that have come into the Premier League.
“Some of the teams like Liverpool and Manchester City have had a lot of success with very established players in positions that have been performing at really high levels for a long period of output in the Premier League.
“So we’re trying to get there and reach that and that takes a lot of consistency over the months ahead.”