Chelsea boss Frank Lampard is firmly pointing the finger of blame at his players after losing 3-1 to Arsenal in the Premier League last night.
The London rivals clashed on Boxing Day and Lampard’s side were embarrassed by a struggling Arsenal side.
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But it was Chelsea that looked like the strugglers, and they are now close to dropping down with the rest of them. If they fail to beat Aston Villa in the league tomorrow night then they could see themselves dropping to 8th place in the league, a long way from a Champions League spot.
Lampard has branded his players ‘lazy’ after the match in an angry rant live on Talk Sport Radio (as cited by The Daily Mirror).
There is no escaping the fact that Chelsea were lacklustre and lacked any kind of intensity and desire to want to win the game, they were second to every ball and had no guts on the pitch.
But Lampard is not taking any of the blame, he said:
“I can’t defend the first half because they lacked the basics of football.
“The message was clear to the players. It was to be a tough game against a team that’s fighting, a team of quality, a team that would give everything for a London derby.
“The players have to take responsibility for that first half.”
“I can’t answer that because some things you can reflect on in terms of tactics, preparation and all these things but in terms of effort it’s something that just has to be a given in football. The players got it wrong.
“I am angry because I want us to win games.
“We were lazy to give away a penalty, lazy to give away a free-kick that Xhaka puts in the top corner and I am very, very disappointed in the way we approached the first half because some things in football are basics.
“It is not tactics or systems, it is do you want to run, back your team-mate out and sprint? Or do you want to jog and say ‘maybe I don’t have to run’, and we took that decision instead of the right one.”