Frank Lampard insists he is not concerned by questions over future after defeat by Manchester City

Frank Lampard insists he is unflustered by questions over his future as pressure grew on the Chelsea boss following their convincing defeat to Manchester City.

Following a 17 game unbeaten run, the Blues have won just once in their previous seven games, an alarming run that has seen them slip to eighth in the Premier League table.

Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich has an infamous reputation of ruthlessly sacking managers, a trend Lampard encountered directly during his illustrious playing career at Stamford Bridge.

Frank Lampard insists he is not concerned by questions over his future as Chelsea manager

The Blues made it just one win in last seven after being ripped apart by Manchester City

And he said: ‘At the minute, we are in a tough period. I understand it as I played here for a long time. I understand the minute that you lose a few games in a short period of time then everyone looks and asks questions.

‘Then everyone looks at it differently and says you spent that much money.

‘I will always feel the heat. I felt the heat when we were on our good run because I know that around the corner can be the negative.

‘I am not going to speak for people above me because I can never do that. That’s why I couldn’t answer a month ago about me getting a new contract, I can’t answer what they’re thinking about now but it is what it is.

They were outclassed in the 3-1 defeat in west London as pressure on Lampard grew

‘It is my job to focus on working, not what they’re thinking, that would just distract me and I can’t do it.’

Lampard admits his players are suffering from a crisis of confidence and believes his team must go through ‘pain’ to reach the levels they want to attain.

He added: ‘When City turned up the heat in the first half our players didn’t react.

Lampard insisted he will not worry about Roman Abramovic’s history of sacking mangers

‘I think some of that is a little bit of a confidence issue where they go “Okay this is tough” – but this is a level we want to get to and we are not there.

‘Any build or re-build that we have with the players we brought in takes pain. That means pain on the pitch, pain behind-the-scenes and fight and character. That’s how you build.’