Lampard will turn Chelsea into title contenders, says Bilic

West Brom boss Slaven Bilic has insisted that Frank Lampard will turn Chelsea into genuine title contenders.

Lampard took over as Chelsea boss ahead of the 2019/20 season. He enjoyed a successful first year, integrating a lot of young players as they finished fourth in the Premier League.

Chelsea still had a transfer ban during the start of his reign, so Lampard was unable to sign new players until this summer.

They have been very busy, this window, spending over £200m on the likes of Timi Werner, Kai Havertz and Ben Chilwell.

The Blues have had a mixed start to the new season. They beat Brighton 3-1 away in their opening game, with goals from Jorginho, Reece James and Kurt Zouma.

But Lampard’s side fell to defeat to the Premier League champions Liverpool in their next game. Sadio Mane scored two quickfire goals to earn them the win after Andreas Christensen was sent off.

In an interview with Sports Mole, Bilic was full of praise for his former teammate. He believes that they have enough quality to challenge for the title:

“The talent that Frank and the club have brought into Chelsea, it’s great and it gives their fans and their players and everybody the confidence that they can again become title contenders.

“They weren’t last season because obviously, they didn’t spend enough money to strengthen their squad.

“Nowadays you see in every transfer that the big ones – but not only the big ones – every team from the Premiership is trying to improve, is trying to get more players, to get more quality on the pitch, so they’ve done it.

“For me, it’s only the start of the season and it’s a matter of how quick they are going to gel. But they are top players and with Frank, I think it will not take them a long time to gel.”