Frank Lampard gave credit to his fellow man-on-target Daniel Sturridge and his other team-mates for helping him to a hat-trick performance at Bolton.
The prolific midfielder made it four goals in two games after the previous two games out of the starting line-up and helped put the finishing touches to a first-half display by Chelsea that had the bottom team reeling.
As Lampard acknowledged quietly after the game, it was the perfect way to responded to the people who in the opening weeks of the season have questioned his ability to maintain the very high standards he has set over many seasons.
'I am still able to get up there and score,' he said after claiming the match ball at the Reebok Stadium.
'I have always tried to do that and playing with the quality of players that I do at Chelsea, I know that if I keep getting in there then the chances come. Daniel Sturridge put the first one on a plate for me, and Didier Drogba the last one.
'I have played for a long time and there is no way you can be on top, top form all the time,' he added.
'Not even Lionel Messi can do that and the rest of us, we have to keep working hard and then when the little dips come and people will always make a big deal of it, you have to keep your head down and let your football do the talking.
'It is not always plain sailing and you just have to stay strong and let other people do the talking. If you do that and you keep working then things come for you and they came for me today.
'I believe I can move the ball quickly and always have done,' he pointed out in response to suggestions he might not fit into a new Chelsea style.
'I have my own style and I try to arrive in the box more than other people but I always try to move the ball quickly in the team and that showed today.'
The game was Lampard's 350th league game for Chelsea. It was Daniel Sturridge's 29th but his more senior colleague is tipping the 22-year-old to make many more.
'Sturridge is going to be a huge player for us from now on,' said Lampard. 'He has great speed and great ability and can score goals. We know we have a very exciting player, and with players up front like him, we know they can always create things.
'We may not have caught Bolton at their best time but when we pass and move like that with the pace and the quality we have in the team we are very difficult to play against. That first half was as good as we have played in a long time.
'I am just pleased to be playing and pleased to be contributing. The team has been playing well this season most of the time and I just want to contribute when I am playing. It is great to be playing with good players, I feel I have a lot left in me and I just want to be part of a successful team.'
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