Lampard: 'Chelsea are still in the title race'

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There have been a few false dawns already as Chelsea have tried to emerge from the bad run that has blighted them since November but Frank Lampard said on Tuesday that the club's win over Manchester United proved that they had "turned the corner" and were now genuine title contenders.

Chelsea play Blackpool on Monday night, by which time they could be back in fifth place if Spurs beat Wolverhampton Wanderers on Sunday. The gap to Manchester United could also be back to 15 points by then but Lampard said that Chelsea had not given up hope of defending their title and could still play more than just a spoiling role in the title race when they go to Old Trafford on 7 May.

The England midfielder said it was "not a given" that Arsenal would carry on winning and would therefore be United's only challenger for the title. "If we keep winning all our games we're going to be in with a right shout," he said.

"It [the win over United] was important," Lampard said. "That was a little bit of the old Chelsea in there. You could see the power in the team. The commitment and the strength was there. We deserved to win, definitely. Big games are the ones you need to win.

"Certainly we've not been at our best lately so it was good for the crowd to see a good performance with some quality and some spirit. We beat the best team in the league so far. There is no one thing that came together. But we got tight and showed commitment. If you don't put that extra effort in, things can be sloppy but I think it was the energy in our game which turned the corner for us."

Lampard said he believed Torres would score a "hatful" of goals for his new club despite the £50m striker not having broken his duck in four appearances. Torres said in the club's magazine he has had to adapt to Chelsea's style rather than be accommodated in his preferred role as a lone striker.

Torres said: "It's important to understand the style of football your team is playing, how you are involved in the system and everything. This always takes some time. But, I think, once you get it, everything becomes much easier. The important thing is to have different options in the way you play.

"If you want to be a top player, you have to be able to play in all these situations and I'm sure here at Chelsea I will play in different positions sometimes. I'm ready for this because I want to play where the manager asks me to – I know the competition is high here."

Lampard became the first Chelsea player to defend Ashley Cole after he shot a work experience student at Cobham with an air rifle 12 days' ago. Asked whether Cole had been affected by the incident, Lampard said: "Ashley plays brilliantly every game, that's why he's the best in the world."

He added: "If we don't get a result against Blackpool then [the win over United] means nothing. The old cliche of taking every game as it comes has never been more important for us. We need to keep clawing our way back, hope that other teams lose, and then see what happens. We need to put a run of wins together to give us a chance. Everybody knows we haven't been doing that this season."