Lampard attacks Chelsea board

LONDON. — Chelsea manager Frank Lampard appeared to aim a thinly-veiled dig at the Chelsea board after his side’s 3-1 defeat to Arsenal in the English Premiership football on Tuesday night.

The Gunners blew Lampard’s side away in the first half of the game at the Emirates, as Martin Odegaard netted twice before Gabriel Jesus put the icing on the cake for the home side.

Chelsea have now lost their last six games – all under Lampard – and are 12th in the English Premier League, with the risk of slipping to 13th if they lose to Bournemouth at the weekend.

Lampard was honest in his assessment of his side after the game when speaking to Sky Sports, admitting that they had a long way to go to get back to the heights they once reached.

But he also references the Blues’ successes during the reign of Roman Abramovich – who Chelsea fans sang for at the game – amid the chaos that has unfolded since Todd Boehly took over last year.

‘’Chelsea has been a big success for 20 years but at the moment we aren’t in that position,’’ the Blues’ all-time top goal-scorer said.

‘’In the time I’ve been here it’s clear to see behind the scenes, on the training ground, the reasons why. If you’re going to be a nice team to play against all the time it doesn’t matter where you go. That won’t change overnight but we better get there quickly.

‘’The passive nature of our game you could attribute to many things. The players certainly care. They are low on confidence, but when you play for Chelsea you have to play a certain way even if you are low on confidence.

‘’Whatever it is, it maybe doesn’t even matter because the only thing that will get you out of it is understanding and working hard. The gap was the other way around for many years.’’

Cesc Fabregas, meanwhile, working as a pundit for the game alongside Patrick Vieira and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, appeared to question Lampard’s tactics as they suffered their latest loss, though admitted the issue is deeper than simply the man in charge.

‘’When I was little, I had a coach with 11 olives and he would throw them on the table with no tactics. This is how I see Chelsea,’’ Fabregas, who made 198 appearances for the club between 2014 and 2019, said.

‘’We saw two different sides. One was really well drilled and coached and Chelsea allowed that. Sometimes Chelsea, I couldn’t believe the tactical and technical mistakes. We are not used to it. They had World Cup winner, World Cup winner, World Cup finalists, Brazil captain. Sometimes it doesn’t matter.

‘’It is difficult. I feel for Lampard. I completely understand where he is coming from in a way. It is just sometimes about the players, you need to look in the mirror yourself and ask questions. Nowadays what I see is the excuse to look at the manager. He doesn’t play, it’s the players showing up.’’

Hasselbaink claimed Chelsea were ‘’asking for trouble’’ with their performance against their London rivals, insisting it was always going to fall apart if they didn’t try to deliver.

‘’This is how harsh football can be when you’re not at it or do the fundamentals right or work hard enough,’’ he said. ‘’The intensity today was very low. — Mailonline.