New Faces Same Errors: What Frank Lampard Should Note; German Duo Performance And Lampard’s Poor Selection.

Defensive issues continue to plague the Blues while their expensively-assembled attack is yet to properly fire in the opening weeks of the campaign.

With Roman Abramovich having backed Lampard with a £200 million-plus summer spending splurge, many felt the Stamford Bridge outfit had gone a long way to closing the gap at the top of the table.

Sunday’s 2-0 defeat to Liverpool, however, illustrated just how much work Lampard still has to do at both ends of the pitch to ensure his team can challenge both the Reds and Manchester City.

At the back there were similar problems from last season.
The Blues were a shambles at times defensively in 2019-20, and with new arrivals Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell not yet fit to start, Lampard has been unable to make the necessary alterations.

That was illustrated clearly by Andreas Christensen’s red card in first-half stoppage-time against Jurgen Klopp’s side. The Denmark international was undone by a drilled pass over the top by Jordan Henderson and an outside-to-in run from Sadio Mane before wrestling the Senegal international to the ground when the last man.

Kepa Had a Good Game But Not Lucky.

Kepa Arrizabalaga making yet another shocking error to gift Mane his second goal of the afternoon and leave the world’s most expensive goalkeeper’s career in west London hanging by a thread.

Kepa should see fresh competition arrive this week in the shape of Edouard Mendy after a £22m ($29m) agreement was reached with Rennes to sign the shot-stopper, and his days as No.1 must now be numbered.
It was disappointing, then, just how limited Lampard’s side looked in their opening home game.

Werner and Havertz Dangerous Performance. 
Germany duo Timo Werner and Kai Havertz – signed for a combined £117.5m ($149m) this summer – both are having good games and are showing improvement as they featured yesterday.

Such a set-up did frustrate Liverpool before Christensen’s red card opened up the game in the second half, but should Chelsea not be showing a little more adventure, particularly in the early weeks of the season?
To his credit, Werner did look dangerous when he was given the chance to run at the Liverpool backline, and only some solid tackling from makeshift centre-back Fabinho stopped him from regularly testing Alisson Becker.

For the second consecutive game the former RB Leipzig man won a penalty for his side, though Chelsea’s disappointing afternoon was summed up by Jorginho missing from the spot.
Havertz, on the other hand, again struggled to impose himself on the game.

After underwhelming from the right-hand side against Brighton on Monday, the 21-year-old was moved centrally into the false nine role that he filled at times during his goal-laden final weeks at Bayer Leverkusen.

The youngster clearly, though, still needs time to get up to speed in the Premier League, and it was no surprise to see him sacrificed at half-time as Lampard reshuffled following Christensen’s dismissal.

There is no shame in losing at home to the defending champions, but Chelsea want to see progress on last season after a summer of significant expenditure.

Many think the Blues should challenge for the Premier League title after their big-money signings, but talk in the camp is more cautious.
Still, Lampard himself admits that they must deliver more than they achieved last term. The early signs are that they still have some way to go.