Chelsea suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Everton in the Premier League during the weekend meaning they are now agonisingly close to losing their Champions League spot.
The Toffees were being managed by Duncan Ferguson after the club parted ways with Marco Silva last week and it’s fair to say, Big Dunc worked his magic.
Apart from a very short spell of good football, the visiting side looked poor and speaking after the match, Frank Lampard admitted that sloppiness was what eventually cost them the game.
‘All the goals were sloppy,’ he said[as reported by the club’s official website].
‘The first goal was something we were aware of, Richarlison in the air in the box, and then the other two were just really poor defending from us.
‘We were looking like getting back in the game at 2-1 and we can’t give away a goal like the third, it was ridiculous.
‘Work hard[to get back the consistency]. We had it nice, we were winning games but this is the Premier League and we went to City and played pretty well and lost the game but the two defeats since then are signs of where we need to get better, because we played two teams that have been having a tough time and we have allowed the games to go away from us for different reasons, and they are big lessons for us.’
Apart from a lapse of concentration, the Chelsea manager also blamed the failure to win headers as a key factor why Everton were the more dominant side on Saturday.
“You are playing a team who have got a lot of fighting spirit…and we’ve got to do more than we did,” Lampard told BT Sport[as quoted].
“I expect us to match everyone in this league on (work-rate), but sometimes physical contact is another thing.
“If you’re not going to win headers, at places like Goodison especially, it’s going to be tough to come here and win like that.”
Next up, the Blues head into Europe as they take on Lille in the final Champions League group game and Chelsea must ensure all three points in this match in order to be sure of qualifying to the knockout stages.
