Derby coach Lampard ‘plays’ down talks of Chelsea return

LONDON, Feb 12, (RTRS): Chelsea’s 6-0 defeat at Manchester City at the weekend left Derby County coach Frank Lampard shocked but the former midfield great has distanced himself from talks of returning to Stamford Bridge as a possible replacement for manager Maurizio Sarri.

Chelsea suffered their worst-ever Premier League defeat at City on Sunday and Sarri is now the bookmakers’ favourite to become the next Premier League manager to be sacked, with Lampard and Zinedine Zidane the favourites to replace him.

Lampard, Chelsea’s all-time leading scorer with 211 goals, said he was focused on doing his best for Derby and backed Chelsea to bounce back quickly from the defeat, which pushed them down to sixth in the table.

“It’s certainly a club I respect and a manager that I respect so it wouldn’t make me smile or anything different because my job is here,” the former England international told British media.

“I’m working very hard and my whole thoughts are with Ipswich Town away on Wednesday, and travelling down to Brighton in the FA Cup (fifth round) at the weekend.” Lampard, whose team are seventh in the second-tier Championship, said Chelsea had been beaten by a ‘great team’ in champions City.

“It’s not nice and it doesn’t happen to Chelsea much, so when it does it’s a shock,” he added. “With all top teams, the important thing is that you come back strong, no matter what type of defeat. It is what makes top teams, resilience, and Chelsea as a club will have it.”

Lampard

Clubs whose fans are found guilty of being involved in racist incidents must have points docked and forced to play their games behind closed doors, according to West Ham United forward Michail Antonio.

A number of racist incidents have come to light in the Premier League this season with Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah the latest victim at West Ham’s London Stadium, where racial slurs were directed at the Egypt international last week.

In December last year, Chelsea suspended four people from Stamford Bridge, pending a police investigation into alleged racial abuse of Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling, but Antonio feels banning fan alone will not solve the problem.

“Finding an individual does nothing. That one person, he gets banned for life but ... no one has a picture of his face. He can get back into the stadium,” Antonio told Sky Sports.

“If you start playing games behind closed doors and deducting points, then the problem is inside themselves, they’re going to deal with it themselves. If you affect their team, the fans, his friends, are going to turn on him.”

Antonio said racism could be eradicated from stadiums if the Football Association (FA) and UEFA took stricter action when incidents were reported.

“I would blame the FA and UEFA because I don’t feel like they’re strict enough when it happens.If they want to hammer down on it next season, it could take five or 10 years,” he said.

“If they keep thinking of other solutions rather than just hitting it straight on the head, then it could take generations.” Manchester City’s Kyle Walker (left), duels for the ball with Chelsea’s Ross Barkley during the English Premier League soccer match between Manchester

City and Chelsea at Etihad Stadium in Manchester, England, on Feb 10. (AP)