Chelsea’s 2-0 victory over Nottingham Forest was a comfortable one, says Frank Lampard.
The Blues boss, so successful as a player in the world’s oldest cup competition got his first taste of it as manager of the Stamford Bridge club on Sunday afternoon.
Despite a strong opening few minutes, Sabri Lamouchi’s men found themselves a goal down seven minutes in when Callum Hudson-Odoi thumped in the net outlining the quality of the Blues' starting XI.
Forest were then awarded a penalty when referee Peter Bankes decided former Derby man Fikayo Tomori fouled full debutant Alex Mighten.
VAR overruled the decision, and Ross Barkley then capitalised on that key moment as he prodded in Jordan Smith’s save from Odoi 12 minutes before the break.
Ryan Yates unfortunately saw a goal ruled out for offside amid a flat second half, leaving Lampard to describe his relief at getting through to round four.
“I’m pleased,” he said.
“None of these games are easy. I played in them and I know that, whatever people say about them.
‘We made changes, they made changes, so it’s how you approach it and I was pleased with the approach.
“I was pretty pleased with the first half, not so the second.
“I wanted us to kick on and use it to see how relentless we could be and keep doing what we did in the first half, especially down the right-hand side.
‘That’s me being picky but those are the levels we want to sustain to get better, but it was a comfortable win.”
