Frank Lampard believes Arsenal’s faith in Mikel Arteta should be an example for other clubs and has called for more managerial ‘consistency’ at Chelsea.
Lampard has been placed in interim charge of Chelsea until the end of the season as the club conduct their search for a new permanent head coach.
The west Londoners have sacked both Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter during a disappointing season, with Chelsea currently 12th in the Premier League table ahead of Tuesday’s clash with Arsenal.
In contrast, Arsenal have exceeded expectations this season to challenge for the Premier League title, having shown faith in manager Mikel Arteta following a poor start to last season. Arteta has been in charge of the Gunners for three-and-a-half seasons and Lampard believes the club’s progress is a result of long-term planning.
“I don’t think there is always an obvious method but I do think that if you are trying to work for something, you look at the successful models at the top end of the league at the minute and you see managers that have been working there a long time,” Lampard said at his pre-match press conference.
“Recruitment is aligned with the type of squad and identity they want to bring and it works in a direction. You see City, Liverpool and Arsenal [succeeding with long-term managers]. So, clearly, if you want to get there it’s something that hopefully aligns. At the moment for us it hasn’t. We have to find a way that it does.
“I was always part of the Chelsea team that changed managers regularly. With casual hindsight it is easy to say I had great success. I won three [league] titles but I should have won five or six. That’s my feeling. We might have won more titles if we’d had more consistency and been able to work in one direction. And I feel like we should have done.”
Lampard discussed Arteta’s improvement of Arsenal and believes the Gunners have been rewarded for maintaining faith in the Spaniard despite difficult moments.
“We all had a little insight in the Amazon [All or Nothing documentary] series,” Lampard said. “When you see what they are producing now . . . As a football person, the interesting thing about watching the series — and before that I went up against Mikel at Chelsea in my first year — [is that] there is a long process to get to where you want to get to.
“I saw times when the manager was being questioned and that process can take two or three years. Another club may have changed manager two or three times.
“There has been a lot of work to that, through Mikel, through the team, through alignment, through good recruitment. If we talk about it as just happening this season, it’s come overnight. I think you go back to the beginning and all those tougher periods. Do we have the possibility to do that? Yes. Will it take a lot of time and good decisions along the way? Absolutely yes. You can get there.”
