The Blues aim to make it back-to-back victories in their Boxing Day trip to struggling London rivals Arsenal.
Frank Lampard has warned Chelsea not to underestimate ‘quality’ Arsenal and their ‘class manager’ Mikel Arteta in Saturday’s London derby.
After two successive defeats to Everton and Wolves, the Blues got back to winning ways on Monday night by beating West Ham 3-0 at Stamford Bridge. They’re now fifth in the Premier League table and six points behind first-place Liverpool.
But while Lampard’s side have enjoyed a relatively decent start, it’s been almost the complete opposite for Arsenal.
A 2-1 defeat to Everton last weekend has left the Gunners 15th in the standings and 11 points behind Chelsea, having lost eight of their 15 games so far.
“We’ve been in decent form [in London derbies] but I don’t think we should be taking Arsenal at face value,” said Lampard as quoted on the Evening Standard.
“With Arsenal, I see a team of great quality, a class manager who are in a tough moment.
“That’s a really dangerous combination to go against, so we have to prepare right.”
The Blues boss added: “The league is so tough and we are seeing results every week that might surprise some.
“It’s hard for most teams to sustain results that might be expected in different seasons and there’s a combination of reasons for that.
“It can be tough [playing your rivals]. They’re all very challenging games, we saw that on Monday, with West Ham and obviously [Michail] Antonio not being around changed the element of it slightly.”
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