Premier League player of the week – Frank Lampard

Despite sitting in third place, four points off the lead, Chelsea and Frank Lampard have been quite inconsistent in the Premier League so far this season. That inconsistency that has seen them beat Manchester City and lose to Newcastle in consecutive weeks may look to have ended after a convincing win at Upton Park on Saturday.

The 35-year-old Lampard earned a new contract last season and scoring 15 league goals and becoming the club’s all-time top goalscorer but he started the new season under Jose Mourinho sluggishly. His performances gathered some unwanted criticism from some sections of support – some even calling for him to be dropped.

However, he turned his fortunes around with a commanding performance against his old side West Ham, scoring two goals reminiscent of the other 142 he’s scored in the league for Chelsea.

The first was a penalty smashed down the centre and his second was a tidy finish from the edge of the area – trademark Lampard.

He scored the most points in Squawka’s Performance Score, achieving an impressive 101, three ahead of Man City’s Jesus Navas who scored twice in City’s resounding 6-0 win over Tottenham. His high score was 50 points more than Eden Hazard, who came second for Chelsea.

Lampard also created four chances for his team-mates, bettered only by Hazard’s five.

The Englishman also achieved a pass success rate of 85% which was one of the best from Chelsea’s team on the day. In fact, Lampard’s percentage was the fourth-highest pass success rate for a Chelsea player to have passed the ball more than eight times.

Essien and Schurrle both played just eight passes, hence their 100% success rate

Lampard was his usual threatening self in front of goal again, hitting 67% of his shots on target; four on target, two off. That was the best accuracy of any Chelsea player to have taken more than one shot. Another impressive figure. Lampard took the most shots this weekend, too, one more than Romelu Lukaku who had five in the Merseyside derby.

While Lampard was extremely effective going forward, his duels let him down slightly. He won just 50% of them, which included winning just two out of five tackles and completing one take on from two attempts.

Lampard’s Heat Map vs. West Ham

Mourinho’s tactical switch to move Lampard further forward at West Ham brought back memories of the Chelsea team he led to two league titles in the mid-2000s. It paid off, as you can see from his Heat Map, as Lampard was everywhere. He controlled the pace of the game in his former side’s half, troubling throughout.

Lampard was superb for Chelsea at West Ham and fully deserved his two goals. He was unlucky not to score a hat-trick after having seven shots in total.

Maybe this performance will spur him on to put his poor displays behind him. It may also signal a change in style of Chelsea as Mourinho may feel more confident in allowing Lampard to push forward more often and threaten in an attacking capacity.

After his stellar performance that rolled back the years, 35-year-old Frank Lampard is Squawka’s Premier League Player of the Weekend.