Azpilicueta shows Lampard’s problem is not his youth club
Chelsea manager insists to Nick Szczepanik that age is no issue as side fall to own-goal equaliser
The reactions among their supporters to Chelsea letting a 2-0 half-time lead slip to draw with Sheffield United at Stamford Bridge were predictable, and in one aspect grimly so: when Kurt Zouma was debited with the own goal that levelled the scores in the 87th minute, racist abuse followed on social media.
The civilised majority of critics among the fan base mostly pointed at the youth of the two central defenders, Zouma, 24, and 21-year-old Fikayo Tomori. Tomori, who played for Frank Lampard on loan at Derby County last season, was making his first Premier League start, dropping the average age of the starting XI to 24 years and 158 days, the youngest during the club’s time in the Premier League.
But perhaps they were aiming at the wrong target. At the other end of the age spectrum is club captain Cesar Azpilicueta, a veteran of 342 appearances for Chelsea, with 528 career club and full international matches on the clock.
True, 30 is no age these days, even for a full-back, and crosses he provided for Tammy Abraham to score the opener and almost grab his hat-trick suggest he is still a valuable contributor to Chelsea’s attack. But the Spain defender is suddenly looking vulnerable in his
right-back berth, which is worrying for Chelsea when experience is in relatively short supply, especially at the back.
On Saturday he made no challenge as Callum Robinson headed Chris Basham’s cross just wide in the first half. He was nutmegged by United left-back Enda Stevens before Robinson scored just after half-time and clenched his fists in frustration. And although he was in the right place at the right time to have prevented the same player crossing for Zouma’s unfortunate equaliser, he was unable to do so. He also conceded possession 20 times.
At Carrow Road the previous week, Azpilicueta provided another assist for Abraham but Norwich City’s first goal was created by an interchange on his side and statistics suggest that opponents have spotted a weakness there and are now targeting him.
Reece James, only 19 but with 44 starts for Wigan Athletic last season under his belt, is waiting in the wings, which would drop the average age of the team still further, but the fans who cheered when 18-year-old Billy Gilmour made his Premier League bow as a late substitute seem behind the young players, for now at least.
And Lampard clearly does not regard age as a barrier. “I couldn’t care less that we’ve got our youngest team in Premier League history,” he said after the match. “It was a plus last week [at Norwich, when he fielded the club’s youngest team since 1994] and I don’t think it relates at all. It is not just the young players. It is up to all of us to resolve the issue.”
Sheffield United’s issues, according to Chris Wilder, their manager, were initially about nervousness at the prospect of a first encounter with one of the “Big Six”, with four of his matchday squad having played for the club in League One. But he feels that Saturday’s performance should dispel it.
“I get that little bit of apprehension because of where they’ve been,” he said. “But hopefully we’ll grow out of that pretty quickly and today will be a day we can look back on and say ‘we’re here and we deserve to be here’.
“We go in toe-to-toe with you and if we don’t get a result it won’t be for a lack of doing it our way. And if we do, we feel we can cause problems for teams in this division.”