Frank Lampard admits his Chelsea team have exceeded his expectations this season.
The Blues are fourth after Saturday's tight 2-1 loss to Manchester City, a match in which they dominated possession.
Speaking after the game, Lampard said: "It is hard to explain my expectation at the start of the season until you have worked daily with the players.
"Until you bring players who were playing in the Championship last season and younger players here, you don't know exactly how it is going to drop and how it ends up.
"I'm really happy with a lot of our stuff this season so maybe that means we are slightly ahead of the curve, but in football the curve will go downhill very fast if you don't keep on yourself and take a lot of the lessons from today and take them on moving forward.
"Now our test is can bounce back from a defeat when we are used to winning because that is another challenge for us all."
