These are testing times for Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard.
After seeing his side climb to the top of the Premier League table in early-December, following an impressive 3-1 win over Leeds United at Stamford Bridge, Lampard has since overseen just one win in the Blues' last six league outings.
Despite beating West Ham United 3-0 just prior to Christmas, the Blues have lost four of their last six matches, including 3-1 defeats to both Arsenal and Manchester City.
The Blues' current slump will be hugely concerning to both the supporters and Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, who supplied Lampard with a huge budget during the summer to bring in seven new signings, who cost a combined total of more than £220million.
However, although Edouard Mendy, Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell have shown signs of promise, the likes of Kai Havertz and Timo Werner, certainly of late, have struggled to live up to the standard expected of them.
Both Havertz and Werner, who joined Chelsea from Bayer Leverkusen and RB Leipzig, respectively, have struggled for form of late and have been unable to dig Chelsea out of trouble, despite costing a combined total of more than £120m.
But despite their current struggles, which is having an effect on Chelsea as a whole, former Blues manager Carlo Ancelotti, who is now in charge at Everton, is urging patience to be shown towards Lampard, highlighting that after a busy transfer window it is always difficult for a manager to see everything click into place immediately.
Ancelotti told Gazzetta dello sport: "They’ve bought a lot of players in the summer and in this case, like at Juventus, there needs to be patience, a rare commodity in football."
Toffees chief Ancelotti is not alone in calling for Lampard to be given time to implement his plans at Stamford Bridge, with former Blues midfielder Glenn Hoddle also of the same opinion.
Hoddle, who is now a regular pundit for BT Sport insists the former England midfielder must be given time and that the project he is overseeing at Stamford Bridge is "a work in progress."
Hoddle told the Evening Standard: "I am not even going to contemplate that question. He has to be given time.
"It is a work in progress at Chelsea. They are falling short against the top teams and they have to find a way mentally to overcome that. They look better against the lesser teams but at the moment they look as if they are not quite ready to really win the league.
"They have talent in the squad but it is going to take some time, they are going to go through these rough patches. That is the process of building a side. You just hope the owner has that vision as well and understands that."
