Lampard: Blues want medals, not records

Frank Lampard believes it was not realistic to think champions Chelsea could continue to win ever Premier League match this season.

The league leaders’ top scorer – his equaliser at Everton on Sunday was his ninth of the season – also dismissed the theory that Chelsea are obsessed by records.

Chelsea lost their 100% league record in the 1-1 draw at Goodison Park which ended hopes of beating Tottenham’s record of 11 straight top flight victories.

But midfielder Lampard revealed it was almost a relief to be rid of constant talk of records, even though his manager Jose Mourinho claimed before the weekend that the title could be won by Christmas.

Lampard said: “People can talk about records, and they do, all the time. But the manager has said he is not that bothered about them. Our aim is to win championships but we know we are not going to do that by winning every game, that is not possible. We are realists.

“We get sucked into talking about records, the questions are always the same, and if you don’t say ‘no’ straight away when something is suggested it comes across that we are saying we will break every record going.

“We don’t, we want to win medals, and that’s the difference. There’s a fine line between arrogance and confidence and we are a confident bunch.

“But that comes from the hard work we have put in, the results we have got and our manager. We are confident when we speak about ourselves and we are confident in the dressing room. But we know what our real goals are and that is to win championships.”

Chelsea were the only likely winners once Lampard’s strike had cancelled out a James Beattie penalty but Didier Drogba had an effort ruled out for offside and Everton hung on for a point.

“We can’t win every week even though we will try our hardest,” said Lampard, “so it’s not a bad thing that it is now all about a winning run ending.

“It stops the talk of us winning every game this season and it means we can start another run.

“We obviously wanted to win the game but we faced going to a very tough place to play. They made it very hard for us and you can’t always go away and expect to win every game. It is not reality to think of winning every game, especially at places like Everton.

“We are always focused, we are still several points clear at the top and still very confident we can continue to play some very good stuff. We just need to carry on the way we have been. We didn’t lose and we just need to get ourselves back on the right track next week.”

Lampard stressed that the draw at Goodison Park owed as much to Everton’s battling spirit as it did to Chelsea missing chances.

“We should have won the game with the chances we carved out but I do not want to take any credit away from Everton because they really have to fight and they did that against us.

“Everton are a better side than where they are in the table, without a doubt. There is not much difference in their side from last season, in fact they have added to the squad.

“They seem to have been unlucky at times this season and I am sure they will fight their way out of this because they shouldn’t be where they are.”