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There have been times, in fact, many of them, when the tables have felt to have stopped turning at Stamford Bridge. Or the record is scratched and the same loop stutters over and over.
Another week under Frank Lampard, another bit of offensive brilliance negated by defensive chaos.
Once again, following this 3-3 draw with Southampton, the manager was forced to explain individual mistakes and protect his hapless goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga.
“It’s my job,” he insisted. But then came a change in tone, or at least a change in tone. Throughout his tenure, Lampard’s young team has played with courage and offensive intent, a welcome antidote to Maurizio Sarri’s suffocating caution.
Adding £ 180 million of attacking talent this summer suggested that was not going to change.
And yet, after his team had blown a 2-0 lead, and then a 3-2 lead in the dying moments, against Southampton, Lampard was asked if he would ever change course, if he would go for route one and it would be negative to turn games off.
“Yes, I would,” he admitted. “I certainly don’t want to play brave football in the last moments of the game and that was my message to the team during the second half: we needed to go longer and lose their press.”
“I don’t think the players did that enough. We try to play too much. Losing the press is definitely a route to get the ball into the other half. ”
Lampard played enough with José Mourinho to know the value of pragmatism. Now that message should get home.
Jannik Vestergaard’s last tying goal was Chelsea’s 14th goal in the last 10 minutes of Premier League matches since Lampard took over. Only Aston Villa has sent more; Liverpool, champions, have conceded four.
Chelsea has also lost 20 points from winning positions in that time. Here at least five teams have the worst record.
No Chelsea manager in the Premier League era with more than one game in charge has conceded more goals than Lampard (63 in 43 games). And perhaps no party better illustrates its fragility than this one.
Chelsea took a two-goal lead thanks to two brilliant pieces from German forward Timo Werner, only for the Saints to receive a lifeline when Kai Havertz was stolen within his own half.
Then neither Kurt Zouma nor Kepa cleared a single ball back and Che Adams made it 2-2.
Havertz immediately restored Chelsea’s lead, but Southampton, the top team during the second half, were unfazed and walked away with a deserved point.
The curious question, then, is why Chelsea are so immune to the management of the game.
“Some of it is ingrained in the players, they want to try to play football,” Lampard said.
“It’s certainly not something I’m not a great defender of. That was probably my biggest disappointment in the second half, that the players didn’t put that message into action. ‘
Meanwhile, the biggest frustration for Saints boss Ralph Hasenhuttl was the long walk back to the locker room.
To comply with social distancing, visiting teams now meet in the gym behind a bleacher. Hasenhuttl used it as motivation and his team showed great courage and intensity to come out with a draw.
“We have been together for almost two years and we are becoming convinced of what we are doing,” he said.
“We know that on a good day we can give all the teams some problems.”
It was particularly sweet that Theo Walcott, in his first appearance with the Saints in 14 years, created the late tie.
After a ‘crash course’ from his coach, the 31-year-old played the full 90 minutes and, along with Ings, Adams and Nathan Redmond, is putting together an English attacking quartet that could turn heads before next summer.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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