No Hazard? No problem for Lampard who has made his Chelsea side a real joy to watch
WHEN the Premier League adopted VAR, I was all in favour of it. If you’re offside by three inches, you’re offside. I’m comfortable with that. But after last weekend’s rash of controversy, notably Gerard Deulofeu being denied an obvious penalty on review in Watford’s draw at Tottenham, I’m rapidly losing faith in the system and I wouldn’t lose sleep if it was canned.
What is the point of having pitch-side monitors for referees to consult if they are not going to use them?
It’s a complete nonsense. Sort it out – or forget it.
NOW that’s what I call making an impact... Nicolas Pepe’s contribution from the bench in Arsenal’s dramatic Europa League win against Vitoria Guimaraes was 15 minutes, 16 touches and twin free-kicks to overturn a 2-1 deficit.
If a substitute has ever made a match-winning contribution with a pair of set-pieces like Pepe’s party tricks on Thursday night, I can’t remember them.
FRANK LAMPARD is doing what nobody thought was possible – he is making Chelsea better to watch without Eden Hazard.
When Lampard took over in the summer, under a transfer embargo and after Hazard’s £100million move to Real Madrid, the consensus was Chelsea would struggle to finish in the top four.
But he has already turned them into the most watchable side in the Premier League behind Liverpool and Manchester City. And a year after he took Derby to Stamford Bridge in the League Cup, and narrowly went down 3-2, Lampard is in danger of turning Chelsea into everybody’s second-favourite team – like Leicester four years ago – by promoting the virtues of youth.
I’ve always had huge respect for Lampard, even more so since he finished applauding all four sides of the ground after a game and came over to where I was working on the touchline to offer his condolences shortly after my father passed away.
He ran maybe 80 yards to tell me, ‘Sorry, about your dad, mate’ and gave me a big hug. That was a touch of class – and now he’s already a class act as a manager.
He even buttonholed me in the Ajax press room, after the Champions League game in midweek, to ask when I was bringing my PFA Academy All-Stars Under-14s to play Chelsea at Cobham, and made a point of saying he will come down to watch.
That shows how much he cares about his club from top to bottom, not just the first team.
I said, at the start of the season, that Lampard was the perfect fit for Chelsea... but I doubt, in his wildest dreams, he would have envisaged sending out the sixth-youngest side to play in the Champions League and deservedly beating Ajax, last season’s semifinalists, in Amsterdam.
It was a remarkably mature performance, which speaks volumes for the work he and assistant Jody Morris have been doing with the club’s young players. He has not been afraid to adapt by playing different systems, from 4-3-3 to 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-2-1, and even when Chelsea lost 4-0 at Old Trafford on the opening weekend, it would have been a very different story if Tammy Abraham’s shot had gone in, and not hit the post, at 0-0.
Nobody is better qualified to encourage youngsters to maximise their potential than Lampard. As a teenager at West Ham, he always stayed behind for extra training, extra shooting practice and, even if he wasn’t the most
naturally-gifted player, he drained every last drop of ability through sheer endeavour.
Young lads coming through the system at Chelsea can look up to him as a role model for hard work reaping its rewards.
I like the way he was brave enough to stick by Abraham when he missed a few chances earlier in the season and Olivier Giroud, a World Cup winner, was waiting in the wings.
I like the way he has put an arm round Christian Pulisic, telling the £58m winger his chance would come if he worked hard, and has been as good as his word.
And I like the way he has been fearless in his promotion of youth. In Amsterdam, Callum Hudson-Odoi was the youngest Chelsea player to start a Champions League match since Josh McEachran in 2010.
Now his side is brimming with the verve and energy of Abraham (left), Hudson-Odoi, Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori. Suddenly, a team whose only academy graduate for 20 years was John Terry, is full of kids – and that’s fantastic for the future health of English football.
I thought it was going to be a huge ask for Chelsea to finish in the top four while under a transfer embargo – but look at them now.
They are only two points behind Manchester City in the Premier League, are well on course to reach the Champions League knockout phase, and this crop of young lads has the aura of Manchester United’s famous Class of ’92.
These youngsters already have a winning mentality because they have won the FA
Youth Cup seven times in 10 years, and are linking up with World Cup winners like Giroud, N’Golo Kante and Pedro.
And they are doing all this after losing Hazard, their best player last season by a distance.
Look at what’s happened to Real Madrid since Cristiano Ronaldo left. They are nowhere near the force of old.
But Lampard has absorbed the blow of Hazard’s summer exit – and turned it to his advantage by giving Chelsea’s youngsters a platform to shine.
They will probably go through a sticky patch this winter because consistency only comes with experience, but rival big clubs must be envious.
In the past, there was probably an element of bitterness and jealousy at Chelsea’s spending power under owner Roman Abramovich.
But Lampard has shown you don’t need to spend £200m in a single transfer window to turn promise into league points.
Right now, I can’t pay him a much higher compliment than this: Lampard is already in the very top bracket of managers.
And if I had to choose between him, Unai Emery and Mauricio Pochettino to manage my club, it would be Frank who would get my vote.