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Frank Lampard and Chelsea have come a very long way. After a summer of heavy spending, the Englishman came under intense pressure when the Blues weren’t getting the desired results at the start of the season.
However, the final five minutes of Chelsea’s game against Newcastle United on Saturday typified the progress both the club and its manager have made in the last few months.
Chelsea played with desire and heart. Every player wanted the ball and the transition from defence to attack was always quick. It was a totally professional performance from the West London club.
Newcastle United barely created anything as Chelsea restricted them to their own half. The Blues’ high pressing also forced the Magpies to resort to long balls which almost always ended with the ball at the feet of a Chelsea player.
A professional performance from Chelsea
After 10 minutes, Lampard’s side was already in the driving seat when Federico Fernandez directed a cross from Recce James into his own net. There were further open chances for Timo Werner, Hakim Ziyech and Tammy Abraham in the first half, but all three players contrived to fluff their lines.
Werner and Abraham, though, made amends in the second half, with the former escaping two Newcastle players before setting up his strike partner to score. The 2-0 win was a deserved result for Chelsea and has places the Blues among genuine title contenders.
The result took the Stamford Bridge outfit to the summit of the Premier League table, although they have since been overtaken by Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham Hotspur, who beat Manchester City later in the day.
Frank Lampard finally gets Chelsea to be consistent
"It's nice to be in the position we are, and to have gained confidence from the clean sheets, which were a problem for us earlier in this season and parts of last, but we need to keep working and be consistent," said Lampard, as quoted by Sky Sports.
"The international break was challenging but we came here against a team we lost to last year, we dominated possession and we scored our goals, and we could have scored more."
Indeed, Chelsea’s consistency in the last couple of weeks has been unreal. The Blues are unbeaten in their last nine games in all competitions and have racked up seven clean sheets in that period.
Currently in second place in the league table, Chelsea are primed to go all the way. If they manage to maintain this consistency, another Premier League title could be on its way to Stamford Bridge by the end of the season.
