Chelsea have Arsenal’s unbeaten run in their sights, says Lampard

Chelsea 2 Aston Villa 1

Chelsea’s 2-1 victory against Aston Villa, in which Lampard scored twice as they came from behind, was the Blues’s seventh consecutive league win of the season. It was also their 36th match without defeat in the Premiership, a run which dates back to October 16, 2004, when they lost 1-0 at Manchester City.

Lampard is refusing to get too carried away about the growing possibility that Chelsea could match Arsenal’s 49-game unbeaten league run, which only came to an end last October when they lost at Old Trafford.

After all, the Blues would still need to avoid defeat at Anfield, Old Trafford and Highbury in the next few months, while also securing at least a point at Manchester City and Everton.

While they could theoretically match Arsenal’s record at home to Birmingham on New Year’s Eve, Lampard was well aware of the opponents in the potential 50th game, on January 2.

“That’s against West Ham,” he said, of a return to Upton Park following his €16 million move in 2001.

“If that record comes then it’ll be fantastic but there’s a lot of hard games to come between now and then. We’ll just keep going and see how we go. I’m more concerned, and the whole of the club is more concerned, about winning the title back to back.”

Lampard’s two goals against Villa ensured that Chelsea are now 11 points ahead of Arsenal and 10 points ahead of Manchester United, having played just one game more than their leading rivals.

“It’s going well, it’s our seventh win in the league. We had to fight hard for it but personally I’m happy to get the two goals that won it for us,” he said.

“We were concerned because no-one wants to go 1-0 down at home, but it was always going to happen. We were always going to concede at some stage and it was about our reaction, which was spot-on.

“We’re strong and confident because winning games and not losing breeds confidence. Let’s hope it can continue because that’s the confidence you need if you’re going to win championships and competitions.”

Chelsea’s immediate focus turns to Wednesday’s Champions League group tie at Liverpool, whom they also face at Anfield in the Premiership next weekend in a testing week.

Arjen Robben’s fitness must be checked after limping off against Villa, while Mourinho must also decide whether Asier del Horno is ready for a comeback against the side that knocked them out in the semi-finals last season. Lampard declared: “We’re ready for Liverpool but they’ll be two very tough games. Going to Anfield is always difficult and going there twice in a week even more so.

“We look ready for it and we want to get the right results. It was a deafening noise last season and it’ll be the same this week so we’ll have to be ready.”

Chelsea’s run of six consecutive league clean sheets this season came to an end after 43 minutes against Aston Villa, when 19-year-old striker Luke Moore scored a surprise opener.

However, Lampard soon struck a free-kick to equalise before converting a penalty with 15 minutes left to hand Chelsea victory.

Mourinho moved to defend his side against claims of negative football, pointing to them having been the team with the most shots on target in the Premiership before this weekend, with 47 attempts.

Mourinho added: “After this game, I can imagine the difference is bigger. We have also scored 14 goals in seven matches and nobody has scored more goals than us. So if anyone is boring, I don’t think it is Chelsea.

“When people talk about entertainment in football, it is about two things. It’s about the quality of the game and about competitiveness. If a game is 8-0, is this a beautiful game? Not for me.”

OPTA stats: Villa have lost their last four Premiership games at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea became the first team to win seven straight games at the start of a Premiership campaign and are unbeaten in the last 22 Premiership games where Frank Lampard has scored.