How ex-Chelsea man Shaun Wright-Phillips feels about the job Frank Lampard is doing at Coventry City | OneFootball

Shaun Wright-Phillips has praised his former teammates' work as Coventry City manager

Former Chelsea and Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips has praised the hard work Frank Lampard is doing at Coventry City, and feels that the Championship title race may be all but over by the new year.

Lampard has recently passed a year as Coventry manager, and in that time, the Sky Blues have been transformed from a side two points above the Championship relegation zone to one of the most dominant second-tier sides the division has ever seen.

After 17 games, Coventry have lost just once, picking up important wins against title rivals and scoring plenty of goals along the way.

Their 47 goals are three more than Fulham's record-breaking 106-goal campaign at this point during the 2021/22 term.

Wright-Phillips believes that these performances are all down to the hard work that the Sky Blues boss had put in during the period he had been out of work between jobs at Everton and Coventry, which has clearly continued during his debut year in the CBS Arena dugout.

Shaun Wright-Phillips commends Frank Lampard's resilience - Coventry City are reaping the rewards

Having spent years of his career in the same dressing room as Lampard during his time at Chelsea and in the England squad, Wright-Phillips knows how hard the Coventry boss works, even through periods of attrition.

After having tough spells at Chelsea, in between being sacked from his role at Everton, Wright-Phillips feels that Lampard has earned the opportunity to take Coventry back to the Premier League for the first time since the 2000/01 campaign.

Speaking to The Football League Paper, he said, "If you know Frank, you know he doesn't give up. He could be knocked down, but he'll get back up.

"He'll put the hard work in to become what he needs to become, and right now, he decided that he would become a good manager, and he has worked at that.

"He actually started well at Derby County, and then there was that blip at Chelsea. But if you look at what happened there, I think any manager would have struggled with what was going on off the pitch.

"He waited patiently for his next job after Everton, and while he was waiting, he wouldn't have been sitting on his hands. He'd have been doing his research and improving in other ways.

"He'd have figured out what went wrong in the past and resolved to change the next time. He's putting that into practice, and he's got a squad of players who are buying into it, and they're now seeing the results."

The Championship could be Coventry City's to throw away as early as February, according to Shaun Wright-Phillips

Critics have been waiting for the Sky Blues to slow down all season, but Lampard's side doesn't look like they're ready to take the foot off the gas just yet.

Now, as we head closer into the Christmas period and into January and February, where the games come thick and fast, Wright-Phillips is convinced that the sides currently chasing them will drop points.

So, if Coventry can extend their lead atop the tree, which already stands at a healthy 10 points going into this congested period, the 44-year-old believes that the Sky Blues could be plain sailing towards the top flight in the final few months of the season.

"I know how hard the Championship is, especially coming into this December period, it's the toughest part, and teams around them will drop points," he said.

"If they can pick up points whilst teams are dropping them, people could be saying it's Coventry's league to throw away.

"At that point, they literally would have to lose every single game to lose the league, and they could well put themselves in that position if they keep themselves going as they have done so far."

It's safe to say that Wright-Phillips is more than impressed with how his former teammate is performing in the Coventry dugout, and he isn't the only one.

If their impressive run from a side threatened by relegation to one that finished comfortably inside the play-offs last season didn't earn them admirers, the start to this season certainly has.

It's not just a streak of form, either - we're swiftly approaching the festive period and the Sky Blues have displayed dominant, unrivalled form all season, and they're showing no signs of slowing down either.

Lampard will look forward to the January transfer window as an opportunity to supply depth and fine-tune his squad, which could see Coventry sprint towards the title in the second-half of the season.