Frank Lampard has warned Chelsea’s players that they cannot afford to underestimate Watford.
Chelsea are overwhelming favourites going into Saturday’s game at Vicarage Road, where they will face a Watford side bottom of the Premier League table and still without a win this season.
But Blues boss Lampard warned against complacency when he spoke at a press conference on Friday.
He said: “We must understand that a team with the quality of Watford – we saw what they did last year and we know the personnel are very similar to last year and they were getting big results and regularly being a very strong team and making the FA Cup final.
“We cannot underestimate a team that will be hurting because they haven’t won for a while and will have every ambition to try and win this game. I certainly have even more focus on what we need to do.
“On paper you look at us going to a team that are bottom of the league. But every game in this league has huge challenges – and one of the challenges is that they’ll be a bit wounded. The other challenge is that they’re a good team.”
Chelsea lost to Manchester United in the Carabao Cup this week but a seven-game winning run before that means they will be full of confidence.
Lampard added: “The good thing about our winning run was that we dealt with challenges – we dealt with Burnley and their type of football, dealt with Newcastle and how they came to the Bridge, and Watford will be another challenge.
“If you want to be top four and want to be where we want to be then you have to show consistency.
“That’s why I’m not getting over-excited with our winning run. We’ve got a long way to go. Carry it on on Saturday.”