Premier League champions Liverpool host Chelsea in the penultimate round at Anfield on Wednesday, with the third-placed Blues having UEFA Champions League qualification at stake.
Fourth-placed Leicester City’s loss to Tottenham on the weekend means Chelsea can be assured of a top four finish if they win at Liverpool, with the Foxes to play fifth-placed Manchester United on the final day.
In Frank Lampard’s first season in charge at Stamford Bridge, when the club has had transfer restrictions, finishing third and reaching the FA Cup should be seen as impressive achievements.
“The Champions League is massively important for Chelsea, not just in terms of the prestige and what it means, but if you are on the world stage like Chelsea have been, you want to compete at the highest level, and you want to attract players to the highest level,” Lampard said.
“It obviously generates money to the club. You understand why there is such intense scrutiny on who finishes in the top four. Now it becomes an accomplishment in itself.
“We want to move further than that so we look upwards in the Premier League, but trying to get in the Champions League has to be a huge aim for Chelsea, even with the way this year has gone.
“It would be a big achievement for the players. We had a squad that included players coming back from loan this year, making Premier League debuts and experiencing the marathon that is a Premier League season, and we lost probably the best player in the league.
“Teams around us invested. We were fighting our own battles, the players fight those battles on the pitch, and while I never thought it would be plain sailing its in our hands in the last two games to get there.
“If we get there - and its going to be tough because of the games ahead of us - it should be something we are happy with, and then its thinking about how we move on and bridge the gap upwards.”
The match is Liverpool’s final home game of their triumphant league campaign, where they’ve recorded 17 wins and one draw at Anfield, without defeat.
The Reds have little to play for, but Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said they were fully aware of that mental challenge.
“We know it already for a few weeks (that) this is an absolute challenge - being champion and then playing in this league against the teams who fight for so much, with the quality they have and the targets they have still to go for, but this is now especially difficult,” Klopp said.
“Other teams, I thought about how it was when I won something before and it was always a challenge… but its football and the boys like and love doing what they do, and so far I am completely fine with the attitude we showed and stuff like this.”