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Welcome to Lampard 2.0 – The Update. On second thought, the download may take a while.
On a beautiful late-summer night in Falmer, the first fruits of Chelsea’s extravagant offseason spending were apparent. Timo Werner sported the liveliest part of an initially heavy and increasingly fluid 3-1 loss to Brighton, which was impressively skillful and a bit unfortunate.
Frank Lampard insisted that Chelsea had “shown a lot of good things” in their first Premier League game. But for 22 minutes at Amex Stadium, Chelsea’s latest new era struggled to find its rhythm, the components collided with each other, looking for ways to fit in.
There was still a brief snapshot of the work to be done when Lampard’s two German debutants combined, Kai Havertz playing a beautiful pass to Werner midway, only for Werner’s own touch to find Marcos Alonso on the field out with everything. the carefree abandonment of a heavily loaded Victorian coal barge.
Otherwise, Yves Bissouma and Steven Alzate had the best of early exchanges in midfield, right up until the moment when Alzate made a horrible pass straight to Jorginho on the edge of the Brighton area. He passed the ball to Werner, who was tackled by Mat Ryan as he swerved into goal. Jorginho finished off the penalty with a little twist and side bravery, celebrating with a shout.
It didn’t exactly feel like a power-up moment; partly because Brighton had been the liveliest team up to that point. But of course, there was always the temptation to construct this game as an instant referendum on Chelsea’s summer splurge and, indeed, on Lampard’s own ability to juggle the extraordinary talents now at his disposal.
In reality, it will take time for the jet lag of a few crazy months to fade away. Hakim Ziyech and Ben Chilwell were absent. Thiago Silva is still “acclimatizing” to the new normal of life in the Premier League biosecurity, in which case good luck with that old bean and see you in about two years.
Werner is Chelsea’s standout arrival in the summer, and he watched him early on, lining up as a roving, mobile center forward, with Havertz on the right side of an attacking three.
Brighton went with a three back, the jet-heeled Tariq Lamptey, once at the forefront of Lampard, starting on the right side. Ben White and Adam Lallana also debuted.
The ground was a startling sight at the start, the empty bleachers brightly lit, the pale blue sky fading over the edge of the plummeting main bleacher. And Brighton was impressive on both sides of Chelsea’s goal, moving the ball very well and finding space on the flanks.
Just before the break, Werner showed his precision again, cutting down the left and firing fiercely toward Ryan’s first post, an isolated moment of clarity.
Lallana had limped off shortly before the break, to be replaced by Aaron Connolly, and it was Connolly’s chest that prompted an early save by Kepa Arrizabalaga after the restart, which sent the ball into goal from a Solly March cross.
The entire Brighton squad cost somewhere in the region of a starting Chelsea midfield signature, but they continued to look more settled and orderly squad, moving the ball sweetly and pressing on well-trained packs.
In the 54th minute, Leandro Trossard scored a well-deserved equalizer as he received a pass from Lamptey and landed a good left-footed shot into the corner as Arrizabalaga vaguely crossed his line. “I’m very happy with Kepa,” Lampard said at the end, quite convincingly.
Two minutes later, Chelsea were back in front thanks to something truly spectacular from Reece James. Jorginho passed the ball through the center of the field. James stepped forward 30 yards from goal and launched his shot into a hard, flat, sunken arc into the top corner of Ryan’s goal.
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Lewis Dunk should have made it 2-2, passing a post from eight yards. But Chelsea were throwing the ball more fluidly now, Ross Barkley adding some oomph to what had been a fairly static double pivot in midfield. A sustained possession spell ended with James forcing a right corner. His swing delivery was volleyed by Kurt Zouma, whose shot had a large deflection.
And that was more or less that. What to do with this new Chelsea? Havertz was a languid figure during her 79 minutes, bringing no shots, 23 passes and one dribble (was that really that many?). He is a great talent, who can be expected to find his place in this team at some point. On the other hand, Chilwell should provide a significant upgrade to Alonso, who appears to be playing each game through his own portable section of peat bog.
In the end Chelsea were dominant, Brighton a bit bummed, their excellent team play faded before a conglomerate of superior individuals and a moment of brilliance from James. There’s still a lot of slack left in this evolving Lampard gear. This was a safe first step.
