Frank Lampard wants Chelsea’s players to take inspiration from giving Liverpool a guard of honour before facing the Premier League champions at Anfield on Wednesday.
Although Chelsea could end their campaign on a high by qualifying for the Champions League and beating Arsenal in the FA Cup final, Lampard thinks finishing in the top four should be the minimum requirement.
Equally he knows that catching Liverpool will not be easy and he wants his team, who are third before their final two league games, to feel spurred on by giving Jürgen Klopp’s side a guard of honour.
“I never felt the idea of it hurting too much,” he said. “There is a respect and I don’t think players should be hurt from it. They should be inspired. I’m not going to pin them to the ground and say: ‘You must stare at this.’
“It will be Liverpool’s day lifting the trophy. If there’s a small bit of the players standing there clapping and thinking: ‘I hope this is us in the next two or three years,’ then I’m very happy and that’s the way it should be.”
Lampard hopes the signings of Hakim Ziyech and Timo Werner will help Chelsea, who host Wolves on Sunday, challenge for major honours next season. However, the 42-year-old manager cautioned that his side need time to mature.
“Where we have younger players they’re not going to just come up from pre-season and be vastly more experienced. Players that we are bringing in – we brought two in already – we have to allow the idea that it may take time to settle.
“We’ll work against it. We want to close the gap. I’m not here to try and bide time; I’m here to try and get as quickly as we can to where we want to be. But we have to understand that there may be a bit more work in progress.”
Lampard feels it will take consistency to close the gap on the champions, who were a work in progress at the start of Klopp’s tenure.
“I remember Liverpool being less consistent in those early days and what you have to have then is a consistency in your own work. There will be tough times but you have to believe in what you’re doing. There can be improvement in small parts every day.”
Meanwhile, Callum Hudson-Odoi is happy at Chelsea despite his lack of playing time since the resumption. Reports that the England winger wants to leave this summer are understood to be wide of the mark.