Lampard tells Chelsea fans to have patience with today’s kids: We don’t have experienced players like Costa, Hazard or Fabregas

FRANK LAMPARD admits Chelsea need to show patience with their recent signings because they lack the Premier League experience and quality of great Blues teams of the past.

Chelsea enjoyed their first win in four league games at Fulham and face a big trip to Leicester tonight with Lampard insisting they need more confidence and time to get back to their best.

But the manager (with new boy Timo Werner, right) also feels expectations this season should be realistic as they have a crop of young players and many of their big signings are still adjusting.

“We are not a team that has Costa, Fabregas or Hazard,” said Lampard.

“We are a team with players it is clear are new to the Premier League. And so maybe the benchmarks are changing.

“I can say it to you, because it is the truth, and then just keep working. Then if I can get success, that is all I can ask in the short term for myself. And we have to think short-term in this job.

“Not just myself, by the way, and let’s not only make out

Chelsea are like this. We have seen a couple of big clubs and big managers be questioned within one, two or three weeks of a couple of results this year, and that is the modern world.

“I am not crying about this, because it is the Premier League. We all have different expectations. If we are seen to be not getting to them, then pressure comes. That is why we are in this job – to handle that.”

Lampard perhaps overachieved in his first season as he took a young team under a transfer ban into the Champions League.

Yet last summer’s £200million spending spree has raised expectations.

The Blues boss added: “We’re seeing a general lack of consistency in places where we would expect it. Not just in the Premier League – look at some of the giants of European football and the positions some of them find themselves in.

“Whether it’s Real Madrid, Juventus or Bayern Munich, they are finding these times tough and may do so for a period going forwards.

“People were touting us as title challengers – and we do have a squad when you look at the composition of it – but it’s very young, particularly in the forward areas.

“And we don’t have the history of players in those areas that this club has had before that are goal machines or assist machines (Costa and Hazard, above).

“We haven’t got Eden Hazard contributing 50 per cent of goals or assists. We haven’t got a Diego Costa scoring 30 goals. We are developing these players and I believe in them strongly.”

‘People were touting us as title challengers but it’s a very young squad’