CHEER UP FRANK!
Chelsea fledglings flying but Lampard wants more
FRANK LAMPARD spent much of this encounter with a face like thunder. His apprehension was l ogical considering his recent history against Crystal Palace.
The last time Lampard faced the south Londoners, he lost 2-1 playing for Manchester City in 2015.
His final game against the Eagles for Chelsea also ended in defeat — John Terry’s own goal providing Palace with a 1-0 win.
Here at Stamford Bridge, the Chelsea manager needn’t have been so concerned as Tammy Abraham and Christian Pulisic secured a routine victory.
Six consecutive Premier League wins is some achievement, more so for a manager experiencing his first campaign as a top-flight boss.
But you get the impression this is merely the start f or t his young Chelsea team — and for Lampard.
They toiled for much of this game but got over the line with plenty left to spare — and that speaks volumes for the fledgling team Lampard has assembled.
It didn’t have the buzz of Tuesday’s breathtaking comeback against Ajax. This was mature a nd c o nt r o l l e d — exactly how Lampard prefers it.
It does not look like their promising start is a mere flash in the pan.
‘I’m proud, but it’s still a snap shot of what is the bigger picture here and a relative snapshot of the season,’ explained Lampard.
‘We need to get even better. If we want to build something over a long period of time then we have so much improvement to do because the gap was s too big last year between en us and the top two.’
At half-time, Lampard trudged off with the look of a man with a weight on his shoulders — not a manager whose team had won eight out of f t hei r previous 10 0 matches.
Chelsea were dominant minant in the way you would expect at home against a team without a win in their previous three outings.
Pulisic was causing Palace’s rearguard problems, while Reece
James’s full top-flight debut for the club was going swimmingly as he nullified Wilfried Zaha’s threat as if he’d already played more than 300 games. It was Chelsea’s difficulty in creatin creating opportunities that was eating away at Lampa pard, however. Palace deserved c credit for that. Marshalled by Gary Cahill on his first return to Stamford B Bridge since leaving i in the summer, the E Eagles’ defence were exc excellent for 45 minutes. Abra Abraham was feeding off scraps, though Pulisic did find himself in threatening positions inside the Palace box only to fall at the final hurdle. Three threatening free kicks taken by Willian, Emerson Palmieri and Mason Mount also failed to t rouble Vicente Guaita in t he Palace goal.
Pa l a c e were s h o wi n g little ambition in attack, a Luka Milivojevic free-kick that sailed harmlessly wide their most dangerous moment.Not that Palace’s lack of potency in the final third would have been too much of an issue for Roy Hodgson at this stage. The onus was on Chelsea to make the running. To an extent they were, but not sufficiently enough to get their noses in front.
But even after all their frustrations, Chelsea should have fired themselves ahead with the final kick of the opening period.
Abraham looked certain to poke home James’s low cross from close range only to miss his kick, but even then Willian appeared odds-on to score as he loomed to drill home the loose ball. But the Brazilian didn’t bank on his former team-mate Cahill producing the sort of goalsaving block that had the home fans chanting his name throughout this encounter.
Under Lampard, though, this Che l s e a t e a m a r e b e c o mi n g increasingly adept at finding a way to win games.
Seven minutes into the second half Abraham coolly slotted past Guaita following Willian’s sumptuous first-time flick from Matteo Kovacic’s pass.
Abraham heads into England’s fixtures against Montenegro and Kosovo in scintillating form.
Displacing Harry Kane as England’s first-choice striker may well be an insurmountable challenge but Abraham is giving Gareth Southgate something to ponder after his 10th Premier League goal
of the season. Pulisic saw his shot from 18 yards tipped acrobatically over by Guaita six minutes later as the Blues threatened to pull away. Lampard’s heart was in his mouth in the 69th minute when James Tomkins, unmarked, headed wide from close range.
El e ven minutes from t i me, though, Chelsea’s jitters eased as Pulisic nodded home his fourth goal in five games after substitute Michy Batshuayi saw his goal bound shot deflect off Cahill.
If they win at Manchester City next game, surely Lampard will crack a smaile.