Foxes leave Lampard’s men chasing their tails
FrANK LAMPArD has ordered his players to toughen up as his Chelsea return continued to stutter yesterday.
The Stamford Bridge manager’s homecoming was ruined by Wilfred Ndidi, whose second-half header cancelled out Mason Mount’s early opener to leave the ex-Blues midfielder winless after the club’s opening three games.
Lampard said: ‘We have performances in us, we’ve shown that. But there are times in the game where we must be tougher.
‘We need game management. If the game turns slightly, we are good enough to wrestle that back and move the ball better. That’s something we can work on.
‘Those moments when we were good, it was great to see every player in the team doing their bit. The next stage is when it turns against us, and it will do because this is the Premier League, we have other ways.
‘I don’t want us to be seen as an attacking team that flies out of the blocks — but then you can give us a sucker punch. That can’t be the way.’
on his hero’s reception as he took charge of his first home game since returning to the club, Lampard added: ‘It was a special moment for me to come back and manage them at Stamford Bridge. I’d say it’s the stuff of dreams.
‘But my focus today was on trying to win. I appreciate the fans but I’m here to try and win and we can do better than today.’
Had Leicester’s finishing been a bit better and the final pass a little cuter, Lampard’s first home game would have ended in defeat.
Leicester’s James Maddison was magnificent in the second half. The ex-Aberdeen loanee plays with such energy, he looks an unstoppable force when he gets his blood up. Here, though, he missed a late chance to bury the Blues. How he drove the ball over from eight yards with only Chelsea No1 Kepa Arrizabalaga to beat, only he will know.
Would Chelsea have recovered from that with only 15 minutes to go? It did not look likely.
So Lampard’s men will need to be much better than this to prosper at Norwich on Saturday.
Tiredness may have played a part after extra-time against Liverpool in midweek. Chelsea could not maintain their early tempo but what may concern their boss is the way his team failed to close this game down once they had lost their attacking momentum.
Despite the presence of two defensive players in his midfield, Lampard saw his team leave huge gaps. Leicester will not be allowed to play in so much space away from home all season.
Early on, Chelsea threatened to roll over Leicester. Had they taken one of the couple of chances following Mount’s first Chelsea goal, they may well have done.
The Spaniard Pedro almost scored in the first minute as he volleyed into the side netting and then Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel made a double save to deny Mount and Christian Pulisic. From the corner that followed, Leicester’s ricardo Pereira cleared off the goalline.
The Foxes at this stage looked disorganised and Chelsea vibrant. Visiting boss Brendan rodgers waited for his team to ride out the storm but they couldn’t. It was an awful goal to concede, too.
Ndidi is usually reliable in front of his defence but on this occasion he dallied and Mount nipped the ball off his toe and ran on to fire past Schmeichel into the corner of the net.
Leicester created nothing before the break but plenty after and by the time Ndidi atoned his earlier error by heading in a corner in the 66th minute, a goal had been coming for some time.
Lampard tried to freshen things with substitutions but to no avail. The tide had turned. Maddison should have scored, Jamie Vardy may have done while the game ended with Arrizabalaga dashing from his area to clear.
Afterwards, Foxes boss rodgers said: ‘I feel as though we should have won it. I thought a point was the least we deserved.’