Lampard admits early axe from Chelsea's starting XI encouraged him

Chelsea striker, Frank Lampard, has revealed that the fact that he was not chosen to take part in Andre Villas-Boas starting XI, earlier this season, has worked as an encouragement for him to excell at his performance.

Frank Lampard was his team's saviour at the Premier League's matchday 11, as he scored the only goal of the game and his sixth of the season, at the Chelsea's 0-1 victory over Blackburn.

Earlier at the 2011-12 season, the 33-year-old's place at Stamford Bridge was considered as being doubtful, after he failed to conquer a presence in the Portuguese coach's starting XI, but Lampard has managed to turn that around, as he fought back to win his spot in the starters and is proud to have silenced the critics.

"Being out of the team spurred me on. The minute you're taken out of the team people talk. I've trained hard and I've won my place back in the team," Lampard told reporters.

The acclaimed midfielder has also shown confidence that Chelsea can bounce back from their previous not so good results, which have put them nine points behind the Premier League's leaders, Manchester City.

"Last year we were 15 points behind and we got back to where we could have won it at the end. You never write it off, but you have to see how well the other teams are playing, particularly City, and we don't want to give ourselves that much of a mountain to climb at this stage."

On the other hand, Lampard warned his team that they cannot afford to produce negative scores again: "It's enough of a gap as it is, and the competition at the top is so fierce you cannot afford to lose too many points. But I think experience tells us there's a long way to go."

With the away victory against Blackburn, the Blues ended a run of two consecutive defeats at the Premier League and are in the fourth position with 22 points.