Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard equals Jimmy Greaves in all time goalscoring table

19 August 2009 10:48
Lampard's penalty in the, eventually, impressive 3-1 victory over Sunderland on Tuesday evening meant he has now scored 132 goals in his eight-year career at the club. "I'm delighted with that," Lampard said when asked about the milestone. "Jimmy is a goal-scoring legend and I'm sure he did it in a lot fewer games than I did. I'm very pleased to be up there with him and just want to keep on scoring goals for Chelsea, especially important ones that help us win games." Lampard is right. He has achieved the total in 429 matches, since joining Chelsea from West Ham United for £11 million in 2001, while Greaves took just 169 appearances, scoring at a staggering rate of 0.78 goals per game in just four years between 1957 and 1961, before being sold to AC Milan. His total includes an amazing 41 league goals in the 1960-61 season. Unlike Greaves, or the four players who are ahead of Lampard in Chelsea's all-time list, the 31 year-old is, of course, not a striker but a midfielder. But such is his potency in front of goal that Lampard has hit the 20 goals a season mark in each of the past five campaigns. If he does so again this season, he will leapfrog Peter Osgood and Roy Bentley who scored 150 goals apiece to become the club's third highest scorer of all time. Not that the England international is too concerned. "Personal ones are nice, but not as important as silverware," Lampard said. "When you look back on your career you look at what you won as part of a team. I'm much more proud of winning Premier Leagues and FA Cups with Chelsea. "The records I've gained and am getting now was something I never thought of when I joined Chelsea. Getting Players of the Year and scoring records are very nice for me personally." Chelsea beat Sunderland having, as they did against Hull City last Saturday, fallen behind. Second-half goals from Michael Ballack, Lampard and Deco cancelled out Darren Bent's first-half strike as the Londoners dominated their opponents. They have now taken six points from their first two Premier League matches under new manager Carlo Ancelotti who made four changes and abandoned his diamond formation in midfield. Lampard agreed that Chelsea are in danger of making life difficult for themselves. "To be fair they had one shot in the first half and it was deflected into Bent's path and he took it well. But other than that we dominated the game. We lacked a little bit of the killer touch in the first half but in the second we certainly had that. It was as good a performance from an away team for a while because we played, moved the ball and created chances. We were fantastic. "Hull was a very difficult game and this was potentially very difficult too. Steve Bruce was always going to have them flying. It's a long way to go and it's just a good start. Of course you want to get your noses in front early on and if we can get a good start and not have the midseason we had last year then we'll have a great chance." Chelsea's top goalscorers of all time: 1.Bobby Tambling 1959-70 202 goals 370 games 2.Kerry Dixon 1983-92 193 goals 420 games 3.Roy Bentley 1948-56 150 goals 367 games =Peter Osgood 1964-74 & 1978-79 150 goals 380 games 5.Jimmy Greaves 1957-61 132 goals 169 games =Frank Lampard 2001-present 132 goals 429 games

Source: Telegraph