Chelsea boss Frank Lampard admits he turned down interest in the summer for centre-back Kurt Zouma.

Zouma, who was on-loan at Everton last season, has forged a partnership with Fikayo Tomori and the pair have flourished together during the Blues' seven-match win streak in all competitions.

"He has been fantastic - there was a belief that I had in Kurt because there was interest in the summer after we all know he had a very good loan at Everton last year," said Lampard.

"But I believed in him as I believed in Tomori – that is why I made the decisions I made pre-season in terms of where we were going to look defensively.

"It has been nice to get some stability, albeit because of injuries, between him and Fikayo in the last games.

"It has been good to get them playing together, to see the little bond they are getting on and off the pitch.

"It is a nice little story and it must continue, I suppose."