Break pleases Lampard
22 Sep 2006 - 09:33:37
Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard believes last season's Premiership champions are back on track after a week on the training ground.
A busy schedule since the World Cup finals has meant that the Blues players have had only a limited amount of time on the training pitch but boss Jose Mourinho has been able to work on tactics with his team this week.
"We're happy to have had a long week with no midweek games. It's come at a good time for us to work hard," said Lampard.
"We've been able to work tactically over the last couple of days. We haven't had that chance before and the new players have only really been able to train with us on the day before games.
"We've had game-game-game and now it's the chance to work hard."
Meanwhile, Mourinho is pleased to have Arjen Robben available for this weekend's clash with Fulham. The Dutchman has been sidelined since suffering a calf injury in the warm-up before last month's shock defeat at Middlesbrough.
"We need him to give us more solutions," said the Portuguese. "When he came on against Liverpool he scared them because he is very fast and they had to keep three players back because of him.
"After five matches, the plan was to have 15 points but we knew we could lose points because the team has not been at maximum capacity.
"We had two matches away - one against a team we lost to last season - and we had three matches at home - one against a direct opponent for the title.
"Twelve points and a goal difference that is six goals positive, I think we are okay."
