Former Arsenal midfielder Paul Merson has heaped praise upon Chelsea's performances so far this season, declaring that a bright future lies ahead for them at Stamford Bridge.
The Blues sit fourth in the Premier League standings after the opening 10 matches, already with a four-point lead over fifth-placed Chelsea, and have lost just once this the opening weekend - which came against early pacesetters Liverpool.
A sequence of challenging matches are on the horizon, starting with the Carabao Cup clash with Manchester United tomorrow and culminating in the hosting of West Ham at the end of November.
There are plenty of positives for Chelsea though, who saw expensive signing Christian Pulisic net his first goals for the club with a treble against the Clarets, which also caught the eye of Merson .
"I like Pulisic , who scored a hat-trick in the 4-2 win against Burnley, and I've always been a big fan of his. I think he's a top player, but he's only a kid. He's 21 and you're not going to hit your best football until you're 27 or 28, I wouldn't have thought," he told Sky Sports.
"A lot of these Chelsea players are kids and you don't realise that playing at a big club like Chelsea at this age and putting in performances like they are, it's phenomenal. To go up to Burnley and win like they did after they just beat Ajax away takes some doing.
"For me, it's the performance of the week. It won't be, but Burnley is a hard place to visit and to go there and win like a walk in the park was, for me, the performance of the week.
"I think Lampard has been outstanding - they're playing football as good as anyone. When I watched Chelsea last year, it was dire in a way. I know they won the Europa League final, should have beaten Man City in the Carabao Cup final, and they came third in the Premier League, but the football wasn't great.
"Now, the football is fantastic and everybody is joining in. Last season, you gave the ball to Eden Hazard, hope he did something and if he had an off day, Chelsea had no chance.
"Now, everybody is chipping in and they're all kids, enthusiastic and putting in performances. The future is bright for Chelsea, although they have fallen over it. It was put on them and I don't know that without the transfer embargo or Frank Lampard, how many of them would be in the team.
!I think half of this team that are ripping it up now would be out on loan in the Championship.
"And you've got to give Frank credit. He could have easily played safe and looked after himself, a lot of managers do and he could have gone with the experience, but he hasn't. He's thought of the club more than himself and it's paid dividends."
