Lampard warns Liverpool not to get carried away

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard believes his team will gain a lot from the 3-5 loss to Liverpool and has warned Jurgen Klopp and his men not to get “too arrogant” after he was shown confronting the German at one point during the defeat, after an incident that led to the second goal.

Lampard told Sky Sports: “For me, it wasn’t a foul from Kovacic and there were a lot of things that weren’t going our way. But I’ve not got a problem with Jurgen Klopp. The way he’s managed this team has been fantastic.”

The Reds wanted to maintain their unbeaten home record in what was their last home game of the season and though Chelsea badly needed to win or draw to enhance their UEFA Champions League chances, Liverpool would have none of that. Klopp’s players somehow raised their game after stumbling at Manchester City and Arsenal and a home draw with Burnley. On the other hand, it was the night of their coronation and clearly, Liverpool had decided that nothing was going to going to spoil the party.

Lampard agreed that the Reds have had a phenomenal season:

“Fair play to Liverpool Football Club, they’ve won the league, but also don’t get too arrogant with it. That was my point, but it’s done. In match play, you can get emotional and that was it.”

“It was an extraordinary game,” Lampard added. “Even when you say they threatened to run away with it, I felt we were in it. I could feel that in the way we were playing.

“It was a turnover and a great strike. A non-foul and then another strike that goes into the top corner. On the third, it was terrible from us defending the corner.

“But other than that in match play, we were OK. The first goal gave us hope and the lads showed great character but they’re a fantastic team and we can’t afford to make those mistakes.”

“Some of the stuff I saw tonight from our team was resilience and quality. At 4-3, if we didn’t concede the fifth, I felt like we were coming. But it wasn’t to be.

“You can never be happy in defeat, but when you see the quality of the first two Liverpool goals, you understand what this place is and why they’re so successful at the moment.

“We’re building towards that, and we’re going to have to suck this in tonight as it’s where we want to get to one day.”

Lampard and his wards now need to avoid defeat at home to earn UEFA Champions League qualification for next season and he believes it’s still in their hands. Third-placed rivals, Manchester United travel to play fifth-placed Leicester at the King Power Stadium on Sunday (July 26), the final day of the EPL, while Chelsea come up against sixth-placed Wolves.

“It’s going to be huge. We know the situation,” continued Lampard. “It’s in our hands to get the right result against a very good Wolves team. We have to deal with the pressure of moments like this if we want to get to where we want to be.

“We’ll have to recover and then we’ll go on Sunday.”