Chelsea suffered yet another embarrassing loss in the Premier League, this time at the hands of a serious depleted Manchester City side.
City were without the likes of Ederson, Kyle Walker Ferran Torres and Gabriel Jesus due to COVID and a lot of pundits were confident that Lampard’s men would be able to pull off a victory on Sunday given Pep Guardiola’s inability to name his strongest XI.
But, in the end, it was Man City who ended up playing some of their finest football so far this season while Chelsea looked clueless both in defence and attack.
Most of the blame for this loss is being shouldered by manager Frank Lampard but according to pundit Gary Neville, Chelsea’s midfield trio just did not turn up for this high-profile encounter.
“I have to say the midfield of Kante, Mount and Kovacic have been nowhere near good enough,” Neville told Sky Sports, as per The Mirror.
“It’s been nowhere near good enough in this last 20 minutes. They’ve allowed Manchester City to get a real grip in this game.
“The full backs of Chilwell and Azpilicueta have really struggled but it’s that midfield that has really struggled to get a grip.”
While dissecting the loss, former midfielder Roy Keane laid the blame on the senior players in the team for their failure to lead by example of the pitch.
Keane said, as quoted by Football London: “I thought Chelsea would put in a good performance, but there was a lack of energy. When you’re playing a game and you’re losing 3-0 and you’re not putting in any tackles, that’s a huge concern for me.
“He’s got senior players out there, he’s got lads that have won the World Cup. Silva, he’s an experienced player, Kante’s an experienced player, how they didn’t sort it out, or put tackles in, or pull people in when they were under pressure, City could smell danger. That would be a big concern for me.”
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Last week, reports had suggested Roman Abramovich is willing to give Frank Lampard more time but we are not sure if the Chelsea owner will have the same feelings after the 3-1 loss.
The Blues have spent massively during the summer and right now with just one win out of their last five, they are even struggling to break into the top-four of the Premier League.
We personally feel fingers cannot be pointed at individuals after this loss as the whole team had an off day but after dropping so many points over the last few weeks, Frank Lampard has surely marked out players whom he would want to get rid off in the coming few transfer windows.