Lampard: We have to stop goals like that
FRANK LAMPARD bemoaned what he called ‘the same old story’ after Chelsea slipped up at Stamford Bridge again — this time against 10-man Arsenal. Chelsea have dropped points in seven of their 12 home games and repeatedly struggled to find their way through packed defences this season. Lampard said: ‘We created enough in the second half but it was the same old story and the same old errors. I’m disappointed because of the situation of the game. We deserved to go 1-0 up but when Luiz was sent off we played as though they still had 11 men. ‘Half-time gave us chance to reboot. We’re disappointed. When you look at the chances we created we should be scoring more goals.’ Arsenal’s first equaliser came after Gabriel Martinelli broke, ran the length of the field and past N’Golo Kante who slipped, and slotted past Kepa. Hector Bellerin levelled again with three minutes left. Lampard added: ‘I didn’t like either of the goals. We’ve got to stop that stuff. People should know their jobs. So N’Golo slipped — that’s football and we have to get over that.’ Arsenal went down to 10 men when Luiz dragged down Tammy Abraham after he rounded Bernd Leno following a poor pass from Shkodran Mustafi. Jorginho scored the resulting penalty. Abraham later limped off with an ankle injury and Lampard said: ‘He has had ice on his ankle. I hope he’s not (out for several weeks), but if he is then we have the players to cope.’
Gunners manager Mikel Arteta was delighted with the way his players fought back not once but twice. He said: ‘I saw a reaction which I had demanded from them — not to give up, no matter what happens. I talked about the team needing to step up when someone makes a mistake and that is what they did. I said to them I wanted to know how they would play against a team like this in this stadium, a team who want to fight to stay in the race for the Champions League. ‘It is a good point at the end of the game.’ Bellerin added: ‘Everything is due to the teamwork. It was a really hard game with 10 men and having lost a very important player for us. ‘We turned it around. We were 1-0 down at half-time and saw it as an opportunity to get back into the game. ‘We are a team who are always looking to improve, to defend together and to not give up. Gabriel took his goal really well. He was very calm. He finished it really well.’ Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka felt the players showed their character. He said: ‘We played very well — it is always difficult with one man less but it was great team spirit. A lot of people talked about us before, saying we were not ready. After this, nobody will speak about us — we showed a lot of character.’