Lampard unhappy with second-half display


Boss Frank Lampard said Chelsea have to be better in possession and take control of games more than they did in the 1-1 home draw against Leicester.

A blistering start saw the Blues create two excellent chances inside the first two minutes and take a seventh-minute lead through Mason Mount.

But having dominated the first quarter of the game, they faded – particularly in the second half – and Leicester grabbed a deserved point.

The result leaves Chelsea with one point from their first two Premier League games.

Lampard said: “The first patch was how we wanted to play – and we still had chances after Mason’s goal – but the rest of the game wasn’t how we wanted to play.

“Credit to Leicester for that; they put us under pressure, we weren’t good enough in possession which gave them the feeling because we didn’t score the second goal.

“In the second half we left far too many spaces and they are a very good team on the counter-attack with players who can hurt you.

“That was disappointing thing, that we could’t sustain it. I don’t expect that one hundred-mile-an-hour-energy for 90 minutes, but I do expect when you rest you keep possession of the ball better.

“We can do better than we did today.”

Lampard said he hated to use tiredness as an excuse but the midweek extra-time exploits in the Super Cup defeat against Liverpool “had to be a factor in the second half”.

“I think it affected us later in the game,” he added. “But we are good enough that if that is a factor we can take it out by being better on the ball.

“We turned it over too many times. We allowed them counter-attacks and it means we ran a lot.”

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