Defeat a ‘big lesson’ for Chelsea, says Lampard

Frank Lampard refused to blame Chelsea’s second defeat in four days on fatigue and insisted it had been a “big lesson” for his players.

The Blues boss said his team, who had led 1-0, had been well briefed on Wolves’ counter-attacking strengths but had simply failed to deal with the situation.

“We had it under pretty good control at the point of 1-0, although I don’t think we were playing brilliant, and the game was there to win,” he said.

“But we allowed them back into the game. We allowed them counter-attacks and we lost the game ,so I’m really disappointed.

“If you allow the other team to play to their strengths you are going to lose the game.”

He added: “I wouldn’t say I’m massively surprised. The Premier league shows that if you drop your standards you will lose football matches and tonight was a big lesson for our players.”

Lampard believed tiredness may have been a factor in a performance, which lacked spark for the most part, but refused to use it as an excuse for the result.

“For the first 60 minutes even when we were the better team we didn’t have the same zip,” he said.

“But when you are 1-0 up and you turn over the game as we did, I don’t want to sit here and throw it all on fatigue.”

Lampard is likely to freshen up his squad for this weekend’s game with West Ham, and expects Hakim Ziyech and Callum Hudson-Odoi to be back in training this week, but was unsure whether they will be fit to face the Hammers.