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Before Sunday’s FA Cup tie against Luton Town, a new banner was unveiled at Stamford Bridge. It said “In Frank We Trust. Then, Now, Forever.”
Less than 24 hours on, Frank Lampard has been sacked as Chelsea manager after 18 months in charge, despite guiding his side to a 3-1 victory against the Hatters.
Of course, the results have been far from good enough for a ‘top six’ club. The Blues sit ninth in the Premier League table, having won just two of their last eight league games. There’s a five point gap between them and Liverpool in fourth, and while pressure had been building on the 42-year-old for a while, there’s still a lot of anger around the decision.
Lampard is, undoubtedly, a club legend in terms of his playing career. He had an illustrious 13 year spell at Stamford Bridge, making 429 Premier League appearances and scoring 147 goals from midfield. Many fans are frustrated that he hasn’t been given more time to try and turn things around in southwest London, although owner Roman Abramovich is notoriously trigger-happy when it comes to chopping and changing managers.
It was always going to be an incredibly tough job for such an inexperienced manager. Lampard’s only previous managerial role came at Championship side Derby County, who he guided to the playoff final in 2019. He subsequently left the Rams to join the Blues, who were fresh off the back of sacking Maurizio Sarri after winning the Europa League.
There are still positives that can be taken from his time in charge. In his first season, he managed to guide Chelsea to a top four finish and an FA Cup final, while leading them to top spot in their Champions League group this campaign. However, the board are clearly worried about the club regressing after spending over £200 million last summer, with a top four finish looking increasingly unlikely this season.
The FA Cup looked to be the most likely path for success, but Chelsea’s win against Championship side Luton Town turned out to be Lampard’s last game in charge. Having regularly chopped and changed between a 4-3-3 and 4-2-3-1 formation this season, he opted with the latter against the Hatters, starting both Tammy Abraham and Timo Werner in an incredibly attacking line-up.
Abraham managed to capitalise on two poor defensive mistakes from Nathan Jones’ side to give the Blues a two-goal cushion within 17 minutes. However, Jordan Clark’s strike on the half-hour mark squirmed underneath Kepa – another mistake for the 26-year-old.
Luton kept bravely pressing for a shock equaliser at Stamford Bridge, forcing a superb save from Kepa to deny Harry Cornick at point-blank range. Just moments later, Abraham popped up with another goal – his hat-trick – to seal a secure passage to the fifth round of the FA Cup, where the Blues will travel to Oakwell to face Barnsley.
Werner, who assisted the opening goal but remained largely anonymous throughout, had the chance to boost his confidence with a late penalty, but blasted it straight at Simon Sluga in the Luton net.
And this is largely the story of the season for Chelsea’s new signings, who’ve struggled to settle in and adapt to Lampard’s tactics. Hakim Ziyech has shown flashes of brilliance, but injuries have stopped him from having a sustained run in the Blues’ side. The German duo of Werner and Kai Havertz have played in multiple different positions since arriving at Stamford Bridge, but haven’t been able to nail down a starting spot.
Perhaps this is why Abramovich has lined up a German manager to replace Lampard, with Thomas Tuchel set to take over in southwest London. The 48-year-old left French giants Paris Saint-Germain, whom he guided to six trophies and a Champions League final in his two year spell in charge. He’s set to be in the dugout when Chelsea welcome Wolves to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday evening.
Whether he can guide the Blues to European qualification remains to be seen, but the squad is undoubtedly strong enough to challenge at the top end of the division. While things ultimately turned sour at his previous two clubs, he’s managed to win silverware with both of them, and that’s ultimately what’s required at a club like Chelsea.
Ambramovich has made it abundantly clear that the decision to part ways with Lampard was an incredibly difficult one, and that the relationship between him and the club would remain amicable. However, the fans’ frustrations over the treatment of a club legend won’t be forgotten, and that will put huge pressure on both Tuchel and Abramovich to turn things around incredibly quickly.
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