Frank Lampard is convinced Chelsea will win the Premiership title back from Manchester United after their decision to sell
Cristiano Ronaldo.
The England midfielder said: "It is very difficult to replace
Ronaldo. I heard Alex Ferguson
say that himself and I don't think he will look to replace him.
"He will look to make the team strong as a whole by not having
him. That is the only thing they can do.
"The amount of times I flicked on the telly and saw
Ronaldo had scored and they had
won one or two-nil.
"Messi is probably the only player you could replace
Ronaldo with.
"That is probably one of our big plusses this year - we didn't
lose our big players.
"The league is probably closer now, which has been a bit of a
natural thing over the past few years.
"In United's case, you don't want to draw the promoted teams so
early in the season. They come out of the blocks to try and get
some points.
"The Burnley game wasn't completely unexpected. I thought it
might be a difficult game for them.
"We have now got a little bit of a lead over them and
Liverpool. It is nice to get
your noses in front."