Lampard: Chelsea players must get used to pressure in home stretch

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard said his team must embrace the pressure in its remaining Premier League matches as the Blues look to secure a top-four finish and qualify for next season’s Champions League.

First-half goals from Olivier Giroud and Willian and a late strike from Ross Barkley earned Lampard’s fourth-place team a comfortable 3-0 victory over struggling Watford on Saturday.

It was the perfect response to Chelsea’s 3-2 defeat at London rival West Ham United in the previous match.

“Every game is going to be pressure now. West Ham was pressure because we knew we could go third. It’s a different kind of pressure. But it’s still the same – it’s how you focus on the game and the job in hand,” Lampard told reporters.

“We can’t get too caught up in what everyone else does at the moment and we did that well tonight. There was no nonsense. It was good, we started bright and carried on and got the small details right at both ends of the pitch.”

Manchester United had briefly climbed to fourth place following a 5-2 win over Bournemouth earlier in the day. Lampard said that his team would be pushed until the end.

“They’re a very good team... The fact we’re two points ahead of them, we have to be happy,” said Lampard, whose side has 57 points from 33 games.

“We know they’re going to be contesting right until the end because of the form they’re in.

“So respect to United and others around us. At the same time, can we focus on ourselves and try and keep picking up results? That’s what will be the main importance to us.”

Mourinho: Not end of the world if Spurs miss top six

Meanwhile, Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho said it would not be the end of the world if his side failed to finish in the top six of the Premier League, something that has not happened since 2009.

A 3-1 defeat by Sheffield United on Thursday left Spurs ninth in the table and struggling to qualify for Europe.

They are 10 points behind fifthplace Manchester United, and only a win against Everton on Monday will revive their flagging hopes.

“If that doesn’t happen it’s not the end of the world, it’s probably the beginning of a new world,” Mourinho told reporters at his virtual news conference on Saturday.

“Things change, change for you, change for other club. Squads change, motivations change, group dynamics change, a group that was strong 10 years ago is possibly not strong anymore, a player at the maximum of motivation is not any more.

“If that happens, we have to look at it not smiling but with optimism and with a professional profile of next season has to be different. If you analyze Spurs last year, for example, how many matches do they win away from home?”

Mourinho said his team was hurting after defeat to Sheffield United, and said he was disturbed by it.

“I believed in the evolution of the team and I thought that by a desire point of view, they put more than us,” he said.

“That’s something that disturbs me. It’s something that I feel, I don’t know, that’s my way of being – it’s something that destroys me a little bit on the inside because I think the last thing in football is when you have the feeling you could, you should do more.”

Mourinho said Dele Alli had hurt his hamstring in training and would be assessed ahead of the Everton game.

Guardiola confident City’s UEFA ban will be overturned

Elsewhere, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is confident the club will win its appeal against a two-year UEFA ban from European soccer.

City’s appeal against the ban was heard last month at the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) and a decision is expected by July 13.

European soccer’s governing body UEFA ruled in February that City had committed serious breaches of Financial Fair Play (FFP) regulations and failed to cooperate with its investigation, handing it a ban and a 30 million euro (24.9 million pounds) fine.

“We are ready, I have a lot of confidence and trust with the people that we will be allowed to play the Champions League because we want to be on the field during these years,” Guardiola told British media.

“On 13 July we will know the resolution, hopefully, for the club - all the workers, players and everyone here, staff - to try to continue growing up as a club in the next years,” he added.

Missing out on a Champions League season would cost City, which has denied wrongdoing, as much as 100 million pounds ($127 million) in prize money and broadcast revenue, as well as matchday and other revenues. (Reuters) *Liverpool Man City Leicester Chelsea Man United Wolverhampton Arsenal Sheffield United Burnley Tottenham Everton Newcastle Crystal Palace Southampton Brighton West Ham Watford Aston Villa Bournemouth Norwich 33 32 33 33 33 33 33 33 33 32 32 33 33 32 33 33 33 33 33 33 29 21 17 17 15 13 12 12 13 12 12 11 11 12 8 8 6 7 7 5 2 3 7 6 10 13 13 12 7 9 8 10 9 4 12 7 10 6 6 6 2 8 9 10 8 7 8 9 13 11 12 12 13 16 13 18 17 20 20 22 72 81 63 60 56 45 49 34 37 51 40 35 28 41 35 40 29 36 32 25 25 89 33 66 31 58 44 57 33 55 36 52 41 49 33 48 46 46 44 45 47 44 45 43 40 42 55 40 44 36 58 31 52 28 62 27 59 27 61 21

Norwich City 0, Brighton & Hove Albion 1; Leicester City 3, Crystal Palace 0; Manchester United 5, AFC Bournemouth 2; Wolverhampton Wanderers 0, Arsenal 2; Chelsea 3, Watford 0. Burnley 1, Sheffield United 1; Newcastle United 2, West Ham United 2; Liverpool 2, Aston Villa 0; Southampton vs Manchester City (late).

Tottenham Hotspur vs Everton (live on Sport 2 at 10 p.m.).