It’s important to stress just how good Brighton were. They were brilliant and that should be acknowledged before getting to the equally obvious point that Chelsea were laughably awful. Scorelines can be the great deceiver: this was 2-1 going on five or six. That’s 11 defeats in his last 12 games as a manager for Frank Lampard and seven in his last 10 league games with Chelsea. All he has to do next is inspire a comeback from 2-0 down against Real Madrid. Good luck.
“We were well beaten in the basics of football,” said Lampard, who described this as the most disappointing of his three defeats since being appointed Chelsea’s interim manager. “We were short, a yard short, a tackle short, a fighting moment short. You have to have the capacity as well as the desire for that and we have to turn that round quickly. We need training time but we don’t have training time. There are mitigating factors with some of the change but that can’t be an excuse.”
