Frank Lampard bemoaned the repetitive nature of Chelsea’s mistakes this season after his side’s defeat to West Ham at the London Stadium.
An 89th-minute strike from Andriy Yarmolenko saw the Blues throw away the chance to overtake Leicester and move up to third in the Premier League table after the Foxes’ defeat to Everton earlier on Wednesday.
The 3-2 reverse saw Lampard rue his side’s lack of concentration and the Blues boss challenged his players to step up mentally in similar fixtures in the future.
‘It’s been a good season but there have been so many of these moments,’ he told Sky Sports.
‘We had an opportunity today to go third but you have to do every part of the game to get results. If you switch off or make one or two errors then you will encourage teams. Players have to show an extra mentality to get through these games.
‘I get to see this group closely and I’ve seen us play great games then have moments where there’s the opportunity to capitalise and that’s the difference at the moment. We have work to do.’
Lampard was however keen to put the result in perspective of the whole season which has seen the Blues remain in the driving seat to secure Champions League.
But the former West Ham and Chelsea midfielder also admitted that his squad cannot look beyond the fact that it was ultimately a match they should have won.
‘There’s without a doubt a good group of players in there but then when you analyse the consistency, you feel a game like this is coming. Again, that shows there’s work to do,’ he continued.
‘If we are opening up to try and score that winning goal then we have to be prepared to run back the other way and defend. And defend better.
‘We are two points ahead of Manchester United, who have been playing fantastic and are on a great run, Wolves are having a great season and they’re behind us, Leicester have had a great season and we’re just behind them.
‘It’s about perspective. We are upset because we wanted to win the game, we’re footballers and we’re in a good position. So there’s no point in being down but I can’t help but say the truth today which is that it’s a game we should have won tonight.
