Having bounced back from a loss last weekend against West Ham by beating Aston Villa midweek, the Chelsea boss warned we faced another tough test today against an Everton side and crowd fired up by a change in management, with their former striker Duncan Ferguson in temporary charge.

The home side were off to the perfect start with a goal in the opening minutes and followed it up with another early in the second half. Mateo Kovacic fired one in for Chelsea but an error-strewn second for Dominic Calvert-Lewin put the game beyond the visitors from London.

Lampard was asked if sloppiness had cost Chelsea…

‘All the goals were sloppy,’ he agreed. ‘The first goal was something we were aware of, Richarlison in the air in the box, and then the other two were just really poor defending from us. We were looking like getting back in the game at 2-1 and we can’t give away a goal like the third, it was ridiculous.’

He considered whether Chelsea had lost out in the physical battle against the Toffees…

‘I think in work-rate we generally match up but in moments of physical contact, they were direct, that is understandable, and we have to deal with that. We did not deal with it well enough.’

Lampard revealed what he had said to Ferguson near the final whistle…

‘I just wished him all the best. He is obviously a man who felt the game, you could see that passion and I understand that, and I just wished him all the best for the games coming up.

‘It was definitely an extra dangerous time to play against Everton because they did have a bounce and I expected that, and they have good players. They have invested a lot and that is why people have been talking a lot about their league position. I was aware, the players were aware but you have to deal with it practically.’

He then went on to explain what is needed to return to the consistency of results and performance level his team were showing not long ago…

‘Work,’ he stated. ‘We had it nice, we were winning games but this is the Premier League and we went to City and played pretty well and lost the game but the two defeats since then are signs of where we need to get better, because we played two teams that have been having a tough time and we have allowed the games to go away from us for different reasons, and they are big lessons for us.’