Frank Lampard reveals he is not surprised by Chelsea's inconsistency this season... as the Blues struggle to find form in Mauricio Pochettino's first term

Frank Lampard said that he has not been surprised by Chelsea's inconsistent maiden season under Mauricio Pochettino.

Lampard returned to the Stamford Bridge dugout on a temporary basis at the end of last season, following the dismissal of Graham Potter, before Pochettino stepped into the hot-seat in the summer.

Chelsea's campaign has been a frustrating one by the Blues' usual standards, sitting ninth in the Premier League table, and struggling to reach Europe via the league.

However, winning the FA Cup would give Pochettino's Chelsea a European berth next season regardless of their league finish, and ahead of the semi-final against Manchester City, Lampard told the BBC he was not surprised by their struggles this term.

Lampard said: 'I think small steps is right. It’s been a season for small steps. I’m not surprised with the way the squad has been put together. 

'An eight-game run of not losing, not getting beaten, is good for confidence. Within those games you still see the inconsistency where they can’t control a game.

'Maybe a reliance on Cole Palmer who has been absolutely outstanding for them. A bit of momentum is a great thing. The last game they won 6-0 and they’ll be feeling good about that, obviously huge challenge for them today.'

The Blues scored six against Everton without reply on Monday night, but still managed to create negative headlines following a three-way bust-up over penalty duties between Nicolas Jackson, Noni Madueke, and Palmer, who eventually took it and scored his fourth of the game.

It continued a good run of form for Chelsea, with five wins and three draws since defeat in the Carabao Cup final at the end of February. 

Lampard proved himself to be a club legend with his midfield performances at Chelsea between 2001 and 2014.

He returned to Stamford Bridge as the manager between 2019 and 2021, and stepped in temporarily for the end of last season, as the Blues have seen a carousel of bosses in recent years.

Lampard added to the BBC: 'I understood the difficulties that were coming for any incoming manager. There was going to be a big squad turn around. It had to happen.

‘I don’t think there’s any problems with attitude in younger players wanting to do well for Chelsea.

'Bringing so many players together at such a huge club like Chelsea that has had expectations of winning and winning and winning for 20 years, it’s hard to sort of shake those.

‘He’s [Pochettino] trying to remind everybody that this is a completely different Chelsea.

‘They don’t have a spine of players that you can rely on. Cole Palmer has become the spine by himself in a way.

‘When you really analyse you sometimes come to the conclusion that we need to develop these players, so that times time because they’ve been bought developmentally – or we need to recruit players that can be finishers at the top end of the pitch because that’s what the top teams do,or at the back end of the pitch.'

Later, he added: 'A lot is said about the owners. They certainly have massive intentions to be successful here. They have come in and tried over the two-year period, there have been mistakes in making the squad balanced. 

'You look at the squad and think: “how can we balance this through he team in terms of the age of the team and all those thing?” Those things need to be looked at.

‘The man who works with them every day is Mauricio. If they have got faith in him, think how do you want to play, what do we want to look like? How can we change to get to the reality of being better.’

Fellow BBC pundit Alan Shearer noted: 'From the outside it looks pretty chaotic and crazy at times, the recruitment and the lengths of contracts and all of that.' 

Following the semi-final at Wembley, Chelsea have back-to-back away games in the Premier League against Arsenal and Aston Villa.