Even after registering a 3-1 comeback victory over Leeds, Chelsea boss Frank Lampard believes that though the team is moving in the “right direction”, it still has to strive for “consistency”, AFP reported on Saturday.

The Blues moved to the top of the Premier League table with the win at home against Marcelo Bielsa’s side on Saturday in front of 2,000 fans who returned to Stamford Bridge after the COVID-19-enforced absence.

“Whether it is this season we can get to real heights we want, we don’t know. It’s a long season. Consistency is our next challenge but we’re moving in the right direction,” Frank Lampard said during the presser. 

Lampard’s men had to bounce back after Patrick Bamford’s early opener against his former club.

However, title contenders Chelsea scripted a comeback with goals from Olivier Giroud, Kurt Zouma and Christian Pulisic to extended their unbeaten run to 16 games.

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Victory takes Lampard’s men — reinforced by a £220 million ($296 million) spending spree — a point clear of Tottenham and Liverpool, who are in action on Sunday at home to Arsenal and Wolves respectively.

“We are a (team in) progression,” said Lampard. “When you bring in new players and have young players, people moving to a new country, different city, different teammates, it takes time.”

New signing Edouard Mendy, who had conceded just once in six previous league appearances seemingly solving Chelsea’s goalkeeping woes, was partly at fault as Bamford kept up his fine start to the season after just four minutes.

The Leeds striker never made a first-team appearance in five years at Chelsea but is proving his doubters wrong back in the top-flight. He scored his eighth goal in 11 games with a calm finish to round a hesitant Mendy after Kalvin Phillips’s pass opened up the Blues defence.

Giroud earned his first Premier League start of the season after scoring four times against Sevilla in the Champions League in midweek.

The Frenchman would have had an equaliser earlier had Timo Werner not somehow turned his goalbound header onto the bar from point-blank range.

Giroud did finally level the scores on 27 minutes when he slotted home Reece James’s tempting low cross.

However, Chelsea were dealt a blow in the build-up to that goal as Hakim Ziyech pulled up with a hamstring injury and had to be replaced by Pulisic.

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After the break, Chelsea’s superior class showed to allow Lampard to get another one over old foe Marcelo Bielsa.

“Always defeats are an opportunity to learn something,” said Bielsa.

The duo had quite an unusual rift in 2019 when Lampard during his time at Derby was left furious, as Bielsa sent a spy to the Rams’ training ground before a Championship match.

Leeds beat Lampard’s men three times that season but lost the one that mattered as Derby progressed to the playoff final with a 4-2 win at Elland Road.

Bielsa’s men bounced back to romp to the Championship title last season and are showing they belong in the Premier League as they more than competed with one of the favourites for the title.

“We’re learning every single week,” said Leeds’ captain Liam Cooper. “They are world-class players, sometimes teams have that extra bit of quality. We know we need to be better and we will be.”

After conceding the goal, chances for Chelsea soon began to flow as Illan Meslier had to make a brilliant double save from Werner before Mason Mount’s goalbound shot was deflected over by Ezgjan Alioski.

From the resulting corner, Mount’s delivery was powered home by Zouma for the centre-back’s fourth goal of the season.

Werner passed up another glorious chance as he again shot too close to Meslier with just the ‘keeper to beat.

However, the German finally made a positive contribution in stoppage time as he accelerated away down the right and squared for Pulisic to get his injury-hit season up and running.