Frank Lampard was left frustrated once again as his Chelsea side fell to a 2-0 defeat at home to Southampton on Boxing Day.
Michael Obafemi opened the scoring for the Saints in the first half, before Nathan Redmond secured a vital three points for the visitors, who executed their game plan perfectly at Stamford Bridge.
It could have conceivably been more for Ralph Hasenhuttl’s side, who attacked the Blues effectively on the counterattack, while the hosts didn’t do enough to get themselves back in the game.
The defeat means Chelsea’s advantage over Tottenham in the race for the Premier League top four is now back to three points, with Spurs bouncing back from their defeat to the Blues by beating Brighton 2-1 in the early kick-off.
And Lampard concedes his team need to learn if they’re to overcome sides on their own patch, having fallen to a second successive defeat at Stamford Bridge.
“It’s a similar story, it felt the same as recent games,” Lampard told Amazon Prime.
“You have to credit Southampton for that, they were organised and they got their goals on the counter.
“But we need to be better at breaking teams down, simple as that. We need to do more.
“I think we’ve got enough to be better than we were today, and what we’ve been at home.
“It needs to be a quick learning process now for us. There’s a difference between going to Tottenham in a game that opens up because they have a go at you, and being able to do things with the space that opens.
“But when there’s no space, and it’s close, that’s a different question, and we’re not answering that.”
