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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This post was last modified on 19/08/2019
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I'm big fan of Lampard but he Lampard need to sit up and motivate his team he always looks cold .fold his arms not cheering is player's up like the likes of klopp ,Diego Simone, pep, Emry, Conte, the king morinho many more
will expect a early chenge in second half of the game, because the game started getting slow in the ending of the first half which everybody notice
Frank Lampard should continue to command chelsea players throughout the 90 mins to maintain the temper of the game high as you see with Pep Guardiola
I think Lampard should work on the attack and the defence. It's not just about keeping possession but converting your chances and being organized at the back which Chelsea have not been able to do. He should stop putting Abraham on....he is more a championship striker for now. He needs to play in the Carabao and FA cups regularly first before EPL. Let him keep Giroud on for 90minutes and maybe Bashuayi can also play but not Abraham for now.
Chelsea should learn how to utilize chances n kill da game in first... failure to this we will suffer...
Adebayo you are absolutely right...I even thought Frank will introduce Kovacic to replace Pulicic so dat Mount to go wide atlst we would have balance bt Frank left Pedro in da pitch.. Introduced Willian whom he did nothing to da team....for Tammy iz gd it's jst dat he didn't get chances bt patience payz..I still trust diz lad.... let's keep da spirit...bluez......
That is true but 4.3.3 formation can help us in time like this
I quite agree with Lampard on this. the midfielders left a lot of spaces in front of the backline thereby exposing the fragile defenders to the attacking players of the Leicester city. they should always try to close the gaps especially when they are out of possession.