Tuesday 7 March 2017 12:12, UK
Frank Lampard compared Antonio Conte's Chelsea to the title-winning teams managed by Jose Mourinho and Carlo Ancelotti on Monday Night Football.
Mourinho won the Premier League with the Blues in 2004/05, his first season at Stamford Bridge, and Ancelotti won the title in 2009/10, the Italian's debut campaign.
Conte, who joined Chelsea having left the Italy national team after Euro 2016, is on track to do the same in his first year in west London.
Lampard was a title winner under both Mourinho and Ancelotti, putting him in an ideal position to compare how those teams stack up to Chelsea's current squad.
LAMPARD SAYS: To win the league you need a strong defensive base and we had that. We were a very complete team.
Looking back, we knew how to win dirty, you look at those 1-0 victories away from home, we had players capable of winning games on their own for us. We all knew our jobs.
Claude Makelele was a massive player for us, and for me particularly as a player that wanted to push forward.
We had real pace in Arjen Robben and Damien Duff, we knew we would not concede for 90 minutes and we knew we had players who could score. It was a well-drilled team and we won the league very comfortably that year.
LAMPARD SAYS: When Carlo Ancelotti came in he wanted to play a diamond, that's what he had been playing in Milan before he arrived.
The smart thing he did was look at it and realise it didn't suit some of our big players, myself included. I remember being uncomfortable at the top of the diamond and not so comfortable on the left.
He changed the formation and that's the brilliance of Carlo Ancelotti the manager. He is a players' manager. He listens to his players and he wants to get the best from his best players because he knows that's how you win the league.
Didier Drogba scored 29 goals that year, comfortably his highest tally in the league. Carlo created a great atmosphere, he got all the best players in and we went on a run late in the season. To finish the league we were winning 7-0 or 8-0, crazy scorelines.
It was not as structured as Jose Mourinho's team but he got the best from the players. We had a real freedom for full-backs to get forward and we all covered for each other. When it clicked for us, it really clicked.
LAMPARD SAYS: I see Conte as closer to Mourinho than Ancelotti. The important thing under Jose was structure and I see that now in Chelsea at the moment.
They have changed to a back three and they are so well drilled. The wing-backs are a danger going forward but they are also solid defensively.
I don't see too much rotation in that team, particularly from the defence and midfield players.
What's made them so effective is they all know their jobs and up front they have those special players. It's similar to Jose's team in that sense.
That's the magic because a lot of teams have struggled with consistency this season and Chelsea have found a formula to win games.
