Lampard’s Chelsea homecoming ruined as Leicester earns draw
Frank Lampard climbed the steps in the tunnel and emerged to rapturous applause from Chelsea fans, a flame display and a giant banner at one end of Stamford Bridge that read "Welcome Home Super Frank."
"The stuff of dreams," Lampard described his homecoming on Sunday.
He couldn't mark it with a victory, though. Lampard's winless run as manager of the club where he is the record scorer and one of its greatest players extended to three games after Leicester fought back to earn a 1-1 draw in the Premier League.
"It's very early for us," Lampard said after his first home match in charge of Chelsea. "We have to be patient as we are working toward something."
After a 4-0 loss at Manchester United on the opening weekend of the Premier League and then a penalty-shootout defeat to Liverpool on Wednesday, Chelsea couldn't hold on to the lead given by youngster Mason Mount's seventh-minute goal.
Holding midfielder Wilfred Ndidi was at fault for that goal after being dispossessed by Mount on the edge of Leicester's area, but he made amends by scoring the equalizer.
James Maddison swung over the corner and Ndidi rose higher than marker Cesar Azpilicueta to plant a firm header into the corner.
Chelsea struggled in the second half, perhaps through fatigue having been taken to extra time by Liverpool in the Super Cup, which finished after midnight local time in Turkey.
Leicester wasted a clear chance to take all three points when Maddison weaved past Chelsea's static defense in the 73rd minute only to blaze over from point-blank range.
"It's a results business," Lampard said. "It's strange because the performance against Manchester United overall made me happier than today, even though it was a 4-0 result. We need both.
"There were frustrations. If there were frustrations in the crowd, there were frustrations in the team and on the bench."
While Chelsea has started the season disappointingly under Lampard, Leicester — highly fancied to break into the top six under Brendan Rodgers — is also without a win after opening with a 0-0 home draw against Wolverhampton Wanderers.
"The top six is always going to be difficult," Rodgers said, "but we have got to be aggressive and dominate, whatever arena you are playing in, home or away, and you saw that from my team today."
BLADES LOOKING SHARP
Sheffield United is comfortably settling back into the Premier League after its return to the top flight after a 12-year absence.
A 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Sunday followed up a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth on the opening weekend.
Only Liverpool and Arsenal have more than Sheffield United's four points from two games.
John Lundstram was the team's matchwinner, the midfielder finishing from close range in the 47th minute after Palace goalkeeper Vicente Guaita could only tip away a driven cross into the box.
Palace has yet to score a goal this season, having started with a 0-0 home draw against Everton.
SILENT START IN BUNDESLIGA FOR UNION BERLIN ENDS IN 4-0 LOSS
Life in the Bundesliga began in silence for Union Berlin with a 15minute protest by the club's fans against opponents Leipzig.
A minute after Union fans finally unleashed their support on Sunday, it was the visiting supporters making all the noise after Leipzig scored the opening goal in a 4-0 rout of the first team from the former East Berlin to play in Germany's top flight.
The home fans stayed quiet for the opening 15 minutes, answering a call from Union ultra group Wuhlesyndikat, which had urged supporters to protest what they called "a constructed club that has absolutely nothing to do with our idea of football."
Red Bull-backed Leipzig has been unpopular among rival fans since its formation in 2009. The energy drinks manufacturer founded the club and helped finance its steady progress through the lower leagues to the Bundesliga.
The team is used to protests — Dynamo Dresden's fans threw a severed bull's head onto the field
during a cup game in 2016 — and Union fans' silence was just the latest for the players.
Halstenberg's opening goal was followed in the first half by goals from Marcel Sabitzer and Timo Werner. Substitute Christopher Nkunku marked his debut with a goal after the break, underlining the gulf in quality between teams that finished third in their respective divisions last season, and giving Julian Nagelsmann a winning start in his first league game in charge of Leipzig.
Union's previous biggest achievement was winning the East German Cup in 1968, but the Köpenick-based side secured promotion on away goals after two draws with Stuttgart in the playoff in May. The club made 12 new signings over the summer to help its bid for survival, but rarely looked like troubling a Leipzig team boosted by an investment of more than 50 million euros ($56 million) in signings. Wuhlesyndikat's protest caused divisions among Union's fans, but club president Dirk Zingler said it would behave in the Bundesliga like it had in the second division, where it had also opposed Leipzig.
Before kickoff, as the Union anthem was blasted out around the stadium, fans held up posters of deceased supporters, so they could be there for the club's Bundesliga debut, too.
Once referee Markus Schmidt got the game underway, only the Leipzig supporters could be heard, though the Union fans couldn't contain themselves when Robert Andrich went close.
The fans ended their boycott with a burst of clapping and chanting, and Leipzig's answer was prompt as the team threatened to run riot. Besides the goals, Lukas Klostermann had a goal ruled out through VAR, and Yussuf Poulsen struck the crossbar.
Nkunku, a summer signing from Paris Saint-Germain, came on for Werner in the 65th and scored two minutes later. Union's fans never stopped, however, making up for their earlier silence. They sang long after Schmidt blew the final whistle — "Our love, our team, our pride, our club."