Frank Lampard said that Chelsea have to keep their feet on the ground after his side tightened their grip on fourth place with a 4-0 victory over Everton at Stamford Bridge.
Goals from Mason Mount, Olivier Giroud, Pedro and Willian secured Chelsea’s biggest home win of the season and kept them three points clear of Manchester United with nine games left, but Lampard insisted that there is a long way to go in the race to qualify for the Champions League.
“In terms of performance, we’ve been close to that level a lot here and then, in the end, I’ve been left mulling over a 1-0 defeat,” said the Chelsea manager. “We’ve played some good stuff here, with energy, but haven’t got the unpredictable bit right – the goals – that makes it comfortable.
“Today it all came together – the energy, speed of pass, tempo. We need to keep our feet on the ground but we saw some really good stuff today.
“United are in great form. Their impactful acquisitions in January have given them a spring in their step. It may look a small cushion from fifth now, but we have to fight to the end. It’s in our hands. I’m not going to say we’re favourites [for fourth] now. There’s a lot of work to be done. We have to fight the inconsistencies, get the points. It doesn’t feel to me like we’re favourites.”
While a brilliant display from Chelsea ensured an unhappy afternoon for Carlo Ancelotti against his former side, the Italian refused to write off 12th-placed Everton’s chances of qualifying for the Europa League.
“Everything went wrong,” the manager said. “It’s not difficult to judge this game. We were not good enough defensively. We were too open, not compact, lost a lot of duels, and with the ball we did a lot of mistakes on passes.
“So it wasn’t a good game. Not a good day, but we can learn from our mistakes. We’ve never talked about Champions League. This team was close to relegation. We are still there, six points from the Europa League. We have to fight for this.”
