Lampard zooms into press conference and is pleased with the win: We didn’t know exactly what we were

Frank Lampard was naturally delighted to see his side come back for the 2-1 win at Villa Park this afternoon.

Goals from Christian Pulisic and Olivier Giroud ensure the west Londoners stay in fourth place, five points ahead of chasing Manchester United and Wolves and just three points behind Leicester City.

In a Zoom press conference following the game he wasn't sure what to expect having not played for more than 100 days since the 4-0 home win against Everton.

He said: “I am really pleased with the performance. Aston Villa had a chance to do this (play a game) before us, but we moved the ball well. It has been a little story of our season, dominating but conceding.

“It's important for the group and we didn't know exactly that we were coming in to. We have to clean up on things and we have to improve and get straight back to work.”

That work is preparation for Thursday’s crunch encounter at home against Manchester City, where Lampard is expected to make a few changes.

He said of the match-up against Pep Guardiola’s outfit where he had one eye on in term of selection: “I did try to look at (selection for) City, but it's hard to get ahead of yourself. We'll look at how players recover. But it will be a different type of game. I will look at the team and attributes and then see.”

Lampard must have been delighted with his substitutes - Christian Pulisic nabbed the equaliser and the Chelsea boss said of the American: “He was hungry and I felt for him, like a lot of the players. He has trained well. His ability to arrive in the box is great and I think he can get big numbers.

“With Christian and Ross (Barkley) they both have trained well, I have selection problems, good ones. I had them on my mind to come on early in the second half.”

On Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who played his first game of the season, Lampard said: “I am delighted for Ruben to be back in the fold. He has looked good and trained well, it was good to have something different. He will get much better and he has a lot to give.”

Chelsea had to come from behind and it was skipper Cesar Azpilicueta who inspired the recovery with excellent crosses.

Lampard said: “We worked a lot before on the game on how to attack, and working down the right and Azpi's energy and showed the leadership and quality.”