Here are your Chelsea morning headlines for Monday, November 9.
Lampard explains how Chelsea have solved key problem
Chelsea’s 4-1 victory over Sheffield United has left the Blues within three points of the top of the Premier League, and represented one of their more coherent overall displays this term.
It was a significant result, considering the London club’s failure to beat the Blades in either of last season’s meetings.
Manager Frank Lampard has been determined to improve on some of last season’s weaknesses, not least his side’s struggles with set pieces, and spoke after the game about the improvement in that department.
“Last year we weren’t happy that we conceded too many goals from set-pieces in games and they are a crucial part of the modern game. Teams with blocks and plans to score and to stop your scoring,” Lampard said.
“We looked to see over the course of the off-season and the personnel certainly helped, we’re bigger and more aggressive naturally through the personnel in the team in the early part of the season.”
Chelsea went behind early on as David McGoldrick scored his third goal against the Blues in two games, but goals from Tammy Abraham, Ben Chilwell, Thiago Silva and Timo Werner gave the hosts all three points.
Chelsea fans react to what James did
Reece James’ reaction to Thiago Silva’s goal didn’t go unnoticed, but the right-back’s activity before the goal was also warmly received by Chelsea fans.
James was spotted repeating the chant “Oooh, Thiago Silva” while celebrating with the Brazilian, who scored his first Blues goal in the 4-1 win.
However, it was the 20-year-old who won the free-kick to begin with, and pundit Graeme Souness pointed out a moment which caught the eye in that passage of play.
“There's an incident if you see the third goal where it's a free-kick by Ziyech out by the right-hand side and Max Lowe comes in, fouls him - so it is a foul and there's a bit of a coming together and he just rag-dolls him, pushes him like a little boy,” Souness said.
The incident brought a notable reaction from Chelsea fans online, with calls for James to eventually captain the side and comparisons with a certain Blues right-back from the past.
Blues loanee knocking on the door for England, claims manager
Chelsea’s summer transfer business left a number of squad players looking for loan moves, especially those with ambitions of playing at next summer’s European Championships.
One such player is Ross Barkley, who has been catching the eye as part of an Aston Villa side flying high in the Premier League.
The former Everton man was at the centre of things as Dean Smith’s side beat Arsenal 3-0 away from home, and Smith talked up the Chelsea loanee’s England chances after the game.
“Good players, they can play with each other very quickly - they don't need time to work each other out,” the Villa boss said after watching Barkley dovetail with Jack Grealish at the Emirates Stadium.
“We are seeing that with Jack and Ross, both technically gifted footballers but have the work rate as well.
“Ross was a marquee signing for us, he wanted to get game time to get in the Euro squad. His performances will be nudging Gareth Southgate.”
Barkley has 33 caps for England, the first of them coming in 2013, but hasn’t played for Southgate’s national team since scoring twice against Bulgaria in October 2019.
