Lampard admits Chelsea weren’t good enough

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Frank Lampard admitted Chelsea were well below their best in their defeat against Arsenal in the FA Cup final.

Christian Pulisic’s early goal gave Chelsea the perfect start at Wembley but the Gunners fought back to win 2-1 and deny Lampard a trophy in his first season as Blues boss.


Luck was against the west London side – Christian Pulisic and Cesar Azpilicieta went off with hamstring injuries and Mateo Kovacic was very harshly sent off in the second half.

And Pedro, on as a substitute for his final appearance for the club, was stretchered off in stoppage time with a suspected dislocated shoulder.

Even so, Lampard conceded that the performance was below par.

He said: “We had a great start and had control of the game. From that point we got sloppy.

“Certain circumstances conspired against us. But in terms of football, knowing us, we didn’t play well enough.

“We didn’t play well enough. We know that in the dressing room.”

Pulisic and Azpilicueta look certain to miss the Champions League game against Bayern Munich.

Another injury to Pulisic is a real blow for the American, who was in fine form after returning from the groin problem which stalled his progress this season after he had made a great start to his Chelsea career.

Lampard said he was unsure how serious the hamstring injuries are.

He said: “They have to be scanned and assessed over the next three or four days. They clearly won’t be fit for next week.”