To get news directly on the go, download the Real Chelsea Fans App

Chelsea spent around £230m on recruitments this summer, with the Blues having to spend big bucks on Kai Havertz, Ben Chilwell, Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Edouard Mendy. Chelsea also signed Thiago Silva and Malang Sarr on a free transfer.

There has been added pressure on Lampard to deliver silverware due to the massive signings, and many even believe that the signings were unnecessary.

However, Lampard has justified the massive summer outlay, due to two windows without any addition, and also the loss of star man Eden Hazard, whom he referred to as the best player in the league before his big money move to Real Madrid.

“For me we lost probably the best player in the league,” the Chelsea manager told reporters. “We couldn’t do any business so the work we did was on the pitch last year.

“Teams that are striving to be in and around top six and upwards were spending last year, they were spending again this summer.

“They’ve had the opportunity with the players they bought last year to get them embedded into their teams and we’re dealing with teams above us, which is where we want to get to, where we are aspiring to get to, that have been building their squads for a long time.

“We want to build our squad. We missed two windows and now we come back in and we’ve brought players in with a view to improve us.”