Chelsea boss Frank Lampard says his side will have to get used to the pressure of the Champions League race after they moved back into the top four with victory over Watford.
The Blues missed out on the chance to earn themselves some breathing space when they were beaten by relegation-threatened West Ham in midweek.
Wins for Leicester and Manchester United earlier on Saturday – the latter’s seeing them temporarily go ahead of Lampard’s side into fourth – meant anything less than victory over the Hornets at Stamford Bridge would have seen the initiative surrendered.
Goals from Olivier Giroud, Willian and Ross Barkley saw Chelsea to a comfortable three points, but with the likes of Wolves, Arsenal, Sheffield United and Tottenham all still harbouring European ambitions, Lampard believes his team will have to get used to the intensity of the run-in.
"We'll have to accept the pressure. Pre-West Ham, we could have gone third and we let ourselves down," he told Sky Sports.
"Today, there was a bit of pressure to get back to fourth and we produced, so get used to that pressure - whatever way it looks - because it's going to be tough all the way through."
As pleasing as the three points was a clean sheet, the Blues’ first in the league since the restart, and it came after Lampard dropped two of the defenders most culpable for the West Ham loss, Marcos Alonso and Antonio Rudiger.
“We played some nice stuff,” he added. “It’s difficult against a low block sometimes, a team that comes here to defend. I think the way we broke it down was good.
“I thought we became a bit safe in the second half, but [we kept] a clean sheet. On set-pieces they’re a big team, people are looking at us for set pieces now and we defended them really well. It was a comfortable evening for us.”
