Chelsea beat Manchester City 2-1 at Stamford Bridge last night in an impressive victory for Frank Lampard’s side.
Whilst City bossed the possession, Chelsea looked more dangerous on the whole on the counter attack and should have actually scored more.
City had their chances, but Chelsea largely managed to contain Pep Guardiola’s side by defending as a unit and having a number of high energy players with pace in the starting line up.
Lampard will take this performance and move on with it for the rest of the season; it shows they can compete and beat the very best teams but they just need more consistency and belief, as Lampard has mentioned.
Chelsea are used to having the lion’s share of possession in games so far this season, but against City they had to accept the fact that they would not.
This is also something Lampard wants to see improve in future as he outlines his plans to bridge the gap between themselves and league winners Liverpool.
Lampard told the Chelsea website:
“It’s a big three points. We are in a battle here and it’s not going to be decided tonight. It’s a nice result which gives us confidence.
“Now the consistency we produce until the end of the season is what is going to define us this year, and get us the finish we want. There is no point in performing like that if we can’t get some momentum and sustain it. That only comes with focus and hard work.
“There’s more belief needed in this team.
“What Manchester City showed us is a team that has been building up and working together for years and has so much confidence on the ball. We have that ability on the ball but we need to be a bit more confident in ourselves, to play, take the ball, receive the ball, and that will come.
“They [Man City and Liverpool] are two of if not the best teams in the world. They are going to be there, and it’s clear to us that’s a gap we want to try and breach and move towards.
“One result against City and a good performance is a great feeling tonight, but the reason we haven’t amassed enough points is because of consistency, which those two teams have reached.
“There’s a clear gap and it won’t happen overnight with one or two signings. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done.
“Liverpool and City have been a work in progress for a good few years now, they’ve had a lot of success and they’re getting success now.
“I’m not going to get carried away. We can get better. We can be better on the ball; we can have more possession. This was one of the only games where we didn’t have the lion’s share of possession, and we have to accept that and be happy with the result.”
“Bruno Fernandes told me that, as a kid, he had a poster of me. He said that when he played Football Manager he always signed me. I was like, ‘You had me on a poster? And, seriously, you sign me for FM?’ I mean, how weird is that?” Find out who said this, here.
