Lampard admits players must take responsibility for Chelsea slump

Frank Lampard has insisted Chelsea's players must take the responsibility for their current run of poor form and not totally blame boss Andre-Villas Boas.

The Blues now trail 17 points behind Premier League leaders Manchester City and are outside the top four with the Portuguese manager under pressure to turn results around.

"Of course we do, it's a group thing," midfielder Lampard told Chelsea TV.

"It was a bad performance from start to finish.

"When you come to Everton, the one thing you know they're going to do is fight you, press you and make things tough and we didn't react to that.

"We created two or three chances and that's not up to standard. We can only take that on the chin and apologise to the people who came up and watched it because that's not good enough for Chelsea."

Lampard insisted transition was no excuse for the current problems, warning the club could forget about beating Napoli when the Champions League resumes unless they improve.

He said: "We have been fighting to win leagues. Now, we are fighting for fourth and that hurts, so we have to react.

"We know we are in a bad way and we have to dig ourselves out of it.

"Different players do come in but whoever plays has to live up to the standards we have set.

"If we play like we did at Everton against Napoli, we will give ourselves a mountain to climb."

 

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