Chelsea: Jan Oblak transfer chances assessed by pundit
Chelsea will not be Premier League title contenders this season because it may take time for their new signings to gel together, according to former West Ham goalkeeper Shaka Hislop. Chelsea are set to spend over £200million on new signings ahead of the start of the upcoming campaign. Hakim Ziyech, Timo Werner and Ben Chilwell have already joined for a combined fee of around £130m.
"We've seen a number of teams in the past spend heavily in the summer and it just doesn't gel straight away.
"I think without question, given the signings, given the age of the signings in particular, Chilwell still only 23, I think they are building a squad that will contend, if not this season, certainly in the long term.
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"I think it's good business from Frank Lampard on a number of different levels."
Meanwhile, former Chelsea midfielder Craig Burley insists the pressure is on Lampard to improve on last season.
"Well he'll have to [live up to the expectations] or he'll be out," Burley said.
"He's adored by the Chelsea fans because of his hugely successful time there but [Roman] Abramovich is not running a sentimental ship, and he's backed him.
"Frank Lampard now knows he's going to have to prove his worth. I think we saw enough last year in terms of the way his team played that there is a lot of hope there.
"I think there are concerns about the way his team defended at times and that's something that he's going to have to sort out.
"But the thing is, Abramovich and the ownership will expect him to be in the title shake-up."
"But the very least they will expect, if they are out of the title running during the season, is that - and I've talked about this a lot, the gap that Chelsea and Man United had to Liverpool was over 30 points - the very least that he can show if he's out of the title race next season is that that gap has been narrowed considerably."
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