Lampard demands more while Spurs stumble again
Frank Lampard urged Chelsea to build on their rise into the Premier League’s top four after Marcos Alonso clinched a 1-0 win over Newcastle.
Alonso’s blistering strike was the perfect riposte to taunts directed at the Spanish defender, who had a spell at Newcastle’s bitter rivals Sunderland.
It was Chelsea’s fifth successive victory in all competitions and Lampard said: “In the first half we were a little bit slow. We didn’t play with enough urgency or risk. We were much better in the second half. You saw spirit and energy in the team.
“We know we want to be challenging in the top four. It is a good sign we are moving in the right direction.
“That must only give us the hunger to move on because football can change in an instant.”
Tottenham’s struggles continued as they needed a late goal to rescue a point against bottom club Watford.
The visitors led for most of the game after Abdoulaye Dacoure’s neat sixth-minute strike. Spurs coach Mauricio Pochettino will have been relieved to see Dele Alli level four minutes from time after goalkeeper Ben Foster’s blunder and VAR confusion.
Aston Villa left it until five minutes into injury time to bag three points in the 2-1 win over Brighton, Matt Targett with the imporant goal. Brighton had gone ahead through Adam Webster but were up against it when Aaron Mooy was sent off for two bookings.
Youri Tielemans capped an inspired performance with a fine second-half winner as Leicester came from behind to beat Burnley 2-1 after the visitors had a late equaliser controversially disallowed by VAR.
Raul Jimenez scored from the penalty spot to cancel out a second-half goal by Southampton’s Danny Ings in an entertaining 1-1 draw at Wolves.
Bournemouth and Norwich both kept their first clean sheets of the season in a game of precious few goal-scoring chances, leaving the visitors stuck at second from bottom.