Chelsea’s 3-1 defeat to Manchester City adds more pressure on Frank Lampard

Chelsea’s run of form turns from bad to worse as they suffer a 3-1 defeat to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City at Stamford Bridge.

After a painful defeat to London rivals Arsenal and a frustrating draw against Aston Villa, Manchester City piled on the pain for Lampard’s Blues in Sunday’s Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge.

With the score at 0-0 after 18 minutes, you would have thought the home side would have weathered the City storm, but Ilkay Gündogan managed to find space just outside the box to strike the ball past Edouard Mendy and into the bottom left corner of the net. Yes, you could say that Mendy could have done better, but it was still a good strike from the German midfielder.      

For City’s second, although it was a super finish by rising star Phil Foden, you have to question Chelsea’s back four. Who was supposed to be marking him? Silva? If so, that was so naive from an experienced centre-back. Also, the amount of time and space City’s magician Kevin De Bruyne had on the ball was just ridiculous as you cannot afford to give players like these time to pick a pass, they will make you pay. Why not get two players to look after him? If you can stop De Bruyne weaving his magic, you’ve virtually won half the battle.

As for the third, well, first of all, you’ve got to say what on earth was N’Golo Kanté doing outside the City penalty box when he know that if he makes a mistake, City can easily counter attack with the pace of Raheem Sterling, which they did.

Although Chelsea managed to slow the attack down, Sterling managed to find De Bruyne who tapped in the rebound after the England winger struck the bar from a left-footed effort.

Kanté is the biggest concern for me as he was brought in to be the new Makélélé and protect the back three from being exposed on the counter-attack, but that has completely gone out of the window because of his failure to read game situations.

In the second half, the Blues managed to salvage some pride through Callum Hudson-Odoi’s injury time goal, but it was pretty much like men against boys especially in the first half.

Worrying Times Ahead For Lampard’s Blues?

Three defeats in the last five games. Things are not looking good for Chelsea. although there was a bit of pride shown in the last half hour of the City defeat, the Blues have only kept two clean sheets in their last ten games in all competitions.  Something has seriously got to change.

As good as Arsenal and City were in the two games after Christmas you have to question Chelsea’s approach in these two games, especially against Arsenal, where they perhaps gave Arsenal a little too much respect, particularly in the second half, in spite of the penalty being the game changing moment.

Chelsea’s next game is an FA Cup 3rd Round tie against Morecambe. it would be interesting to see what team he puts out for that clash. at the Bridge. Although you could say that Hudson-Odoi and Billy Gilmour looked promising when they came on for the final 25 minutes or so. This was Chelsea’s best period of play throughout the whole game.

The question now is, what happens next? We all know how ruthless Abramovich is when it comes to hiring and sacking managers, but will he continue to back the Chelsea legend? What must the fans be thinking? How much would Lampard have learnt playing under nine different managers? According to teamtalk.com, there are rumours which state that some players i.e Timo Werner wasn’t particularly happy with the Chelsea Legend’s tactics against City, especially when he was being used as a centre-forward rather than a winger. Yes, Timo Werner can score a bag full of goals, but does he really have all the attributes of being a top striker i’e holding the ball up to let others player off him? I don’t think so. That’s why starting with either Abraham or Olivier Giroud might have been a better option. I’m not saying it would have worked, but it may have given City’s defenders something to think about and it would have also perhaps freed up Werner leaving space in behind for him to run at the City defenders. Also, City’s number two keeper Zack Steffan had virtually nothing to do in the first-half, so it was a bit surprising to not see the Chelsea players test him out with a couple of shots from outside the box, just to test his handling skills as any keeper can be nervous, especially on their debut.

Let’s also not forget that this his only his second job in football management as he started this part of his career at Derby County, where he only spent one season, which isn’t really enough experience in terms of football management, particularly at the highest level. Although, as well as having Jody Morris, could he have had someone like Gianfranco Zola who managed at West Ham and Watford as part of his management staff? It may have  been better for Frank to have someone with bags of experience in managing a football team by his side.

Winning cups and titles is not a walk in the park, you would get the same answer from Jurgen Klopp and Guardiola. Even they had to work their socks off in order for City and Liverpool to become consistent title challengers, so give Frank time. This unpredictable season isn’t over yet, so who knows what will happen in the next couple of months?

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