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Lampard - Players share blame

Image: Frank Lampard: Says the Chelsea players are prepared to share the blame for recent wobble

Frank Lampard claims the Chelsea squad must be prepared to shoulder some of the responsibility for the club's recent dip in form.

Blues midfielder admits players underperformed against Everton

Frank Lampard claims the Chelsea squad must be prepared to shoulder some of the responsibility for the club's recent dip in form. Blues boss Andre Villas-Boas said after a disappointing 2-0 defeat at Everton on Saturday that he was prepared to take 'full responsibility' for the abject display. That reversal on Merseyside saw Chelsea's winless run in the Premier League stretched to four games and dumped them out of the UEFA Champions League places. Lampard admits performances such as that are unacceptable and believes the players need to accept as much of the blame for the forgettable showing as their manager. "Of course we do, it's a group thing," he told Chelsea TV. "It was a bad performance from start to finish. "When you come to Everton, the one thing you know they're going to do is fight you, press you and make things tough and we didn't react to that. "We created two or three chances and that's not up to standard. We can only take that on the chin and apologise to the people who came up and watched it because that's not good enough for Chelsea."

Hurting

Chelsea are unaccustomed to finding themselves out of the Premier League's top four and Lampard admits a frustrating campaign at Stamford Bridge has left those inside the camp hurting. Ahead of a crucial week that is set to see the Blues face Birmingham in the FA Cup fifth round and Napoli in the first leg of their last-16 showdown in the Champions League, Lampard said: "We have been fighting to win leagues. Now, we are fighting for fourth and that hurts, so we have to react. "We know we are in a bad way and we have to dig ourselves out of it. "Different players do come in but whoever plays has to live up to the standards we have set. "If we play like we did at Everton against Napoli, we will give ourselves a mountain to climb."

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