'Obsessed' Lampard welcomes Chelsea pressure ahead of FA Cup final

London, August 1: Frank Lampard is "obsessed" with succeeding at Chelsea as he tries to make sure the Blues do not go trophyless for the first time in four seasons.

Chelsea face Arsenal in Saturday's FA Cup final at Wembley, with Lampard aiming to win his first medal as a head coach in a competition he won four times as a Blues player.

Given Chelsea trail Bayern Munich 3-0 after the first leg of their last-16 Champions League tie, the domestic showpiece against the Gunners represents their only realistic hope of ending Lampard's first campaign in charge with silverware.

Across the three seasons prior to 2019-20, Chelsea won the Premier League, FA Cup and Europa League, though expectations were lowered for this term due to a transfer ban and the departure of Eden Hazard.

"I don't mind the pressure, I'm so used to it as a player," Lampard said.

"If you took that pressure away I think I would probably miss it. I don't mind that and I understand what comes with that.

"I put more pressure on myself than anything or anybody. I hope I can bring us forward to the point where expecting titles every year includes expecting Premier League titles.

"We're not at that position now and that's where I want us to get to and that's going to be a process."

Chelsea will be in the Champions League next season having finished fourth in the Premier League, though there was no congratulatory call from owner Roman Abramovich for Lampard.

The former England international said he would always welcome such communication, though, as he detailed his obsession with trying to succeed at Stamford Bridge.

"I'm a big boy, I'm in this job, I know there are demands," he said.

"I will always be very welcome to take any call or take any meeting because this is my life and I'm obsessed with how we can get to where we want to be.

"I don't need those calls but I'll be there if they are there to be had."

Such is Lampard's desire to succeed as his peers Jurgen Klopp and Pep Guardiola have, even a Netflix binge during his downtime is out of the question.

"I can't go home and just put my laptop down and pick it up next morning," he said.

"At the moment my wife's working on TV, so she's doing her notes for two or three hours in an evening, I'm doing my prep for training the next day. That's how exciting our life looks at the minute.

"I feel like that's the only way that I can get success. When I look around – and I don't know what the top managers do when they go home – but I guess they're not flicking on Netflix and watching series after series.

"I think they're thinking about their team and how they can get better. I try to do as much as I can here at Chelsea to get us as good as we can be."