Dejected Lampard feeling the pain
Lampard feels the heat after De Bruyne lifts depleted side
FRANK LAMPARD admits he is “feeling the heat” at Chelsea – and warned there will be more pain before they become Premier League challengers again. A humbling defeat by Manchester City left them in eighth place, just weeks after the Stamford Bridge side were touted as title hopefuls.
Lampard, right, said: “I am the man to have the reality check and there will be work and at times pain.
“Today was painful in the first half in football terms because their level of play showed what we need to aspire to. In the second half I saw a reaction but the work needs to be done. I always feel heat. The
PEP GUARDIOLA produced the perfect response to having half his team taken away from him by the coronavirus.
He came up with a new, more potent variant of his own.
All the talk before the game was of who Guardiola did not have in his squad, with six players testing positive for Covid- 19 and forced to isolate.
But from the moment the first whistle went, it was a stark reminder of who he still did have – certainly more than enough for a Chelsea team who had won just one of their previous five games.
Crucially, he still has Kevin De Bruyne. But the real genius was in how the City boss chose to use him against the side, remember, who put the final dent in their title hopes last season. Effectively, Guardiola played the midfielder up front, not so much as a false nine but more an out- and- out striker.
Of course, it would not be Guardiola if there were not elegant variations.
Raheem Sterling played alongside him but wide, with Ilkay Gundogan encouraged to burst through the middle, while Phil Foden and Bernardo Silva created the majority of their own havoc from the flanks. It was all too much for the home team. De Bruyne was perhaps still finding his feet in his new role when he ghosted effortlessly between Thiago Silva and Kurt Zouma and pulled a shot wide.
Moments later Oleksandr Zinchenko crossed, Foden laid the ball off to Gundogan and he turned Silva easily before firing a shot into the corner.
Just two minutes and 37 seconds later, it was game over to all intents and purposes.
De Bruyne was first to react when Silva half- cleared and he fed Foden, who squeezed his shot inside the near post in a confident start to what could be an enormous year for him. The England international had a long chat with his manager when he was substituted at the end of the game – hopefully it was a promise of much more football for the player in 2021.
De Bruyne’s most remarkable contribution was still to come.
In Harry Kane style, the modern No9 has a job to do in his own penalty area.
To that end, it was his ginger head that cleared a Chelsea set piece in the 34th minute.
For some reason, which no doubt he will be asked to explain by his manager at some point in the coming days, the last Chelsea man back – N’Golo Kante – decided 20 yards inside the City half was a good place to stand.
When De Bruyne’s header skidded past him, it gave
Sterling a 10- yard head start while remaining onside.
Although the City striker eventually checked and hit his shot against the post, it was that man De Bruyne who followed up and coolly knocked the rebound inside the upright for the third goal.
The only disappointment was that the best move of the match by the visitors came to nothing.
The ball went from Sterling to De Bruyne and then wide to Foden before his low cross was flicked by the heel of Gundogan frustratingly off target.
Nevertheless, it did still highlight just how wide the gulf is in class with Chelsea right now.
For all their £ 220million summer outlay, Frank
Lampard’s side are toiling badly and Callum HudsonOdoi’s late consolation goal, sliding in at the far post, did nothing to cover that up.
Timo Werner seems drained of belief. Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz have struggled with injury, and although Chelsea’s Silva eventually managed to organise their defence against City, it was all too late.
Noise about Lampard’s future will grow with every one of these defeats but, in fairness, it is still early days in the project he is undertaking.
There is no doubt the hierarchy at Stamford Bridge will not be content to trail in the wake of City, Liverpool and the likes for too long.
For all the positivity around the team earlier this season, this shows how much work there still is to do.