Chelsea manager Frank Lampard warns of ‘periods of pain’ after 3-1 loss to Man City

Frank Lampard said Chelsea will have to go through “periods of pain” after Pep Guardiola’s men outclassed the Blues.

Manchester City’s Phil Foden celebrates scoring against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge

Frank Lampard said Chelsea will have to go through “periods of pain” to reach the standards set by Manchester City after Pep Guardiola’s men outclassed the Blues in a 3-1 win at Stamford Bridge.

City brushed off a series of coronavirus-related absences as goals from Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden and Kevin De Bruyne killed the game as a contest inside 35 minutes.

Victory lifts City to within four points of Liverpool and Manchester United at the top of the table, but with a game in hand on both to come.

Chelsea were expected to challenge for the title themselves after a £220 million ($390 million) spending spree in the transfer market, but a run of one win in six games has left them down in eighth, seven points off the pace having played a game more than the leaders.

Roman Abramovich has dismissed plenty of Chelsea managers in the past for similar spells of form and the pressure in mounting on Lampard to prove he can mould a talented squad of individuals into a team capable of competing for major honours.

“There are periods of pain we are going to go through. That was painful in the first half for the players,” said Lampard, who publicly lambasted his side’s effort in a 3-1 defeat to Arsenal last weekend.

“I’ll be the first to look at myself today. When I look at this squad, I know there is uplift in this team but I know where we are at because I can see and I know the work it takes to be at the level Man City showed today.

“It’s normal that as a squad we take little knocks along the way, now it is a test.”

City had scored more than twice in a league game just once since their opening match of the season, but clicked into gear after taking 10 minutes to find their rhythm in an unfamiliar formation with De Bruyne the most advanced forward in between Foden and Raheem Sterling.

“We had a plan, we tried to play in a certain way and it worked. The players were fantastic in all departments,” said Guardiola.

“We are a team that needs to play in a certain rhythm, we have to play a lot of passes. We won the Premier League that way (in the past).

“We missed a little bit this tempo (this season) and today we got it.”

City were without Ederson, Kyle Walker, Ferran Torres and Gabriel Jesus due to a coronavirus outbreak that led to their clash at Everton on Monday being postponed.

Goalkeeper Zack Steffen was handed his Premier League debut, but was barely tested despite Lampard being able to start £150 million trio Christian Pulisic, Timo Werner and Hakim Ziyech together in attack for the first time.

Gundogan opened the floodgates on 18 minutes when he spun just outside the area and found the bottom corner.

Three minutes later Foden doubled City’s lead with a fine near post finish from De Bruyne’s cross.

“For 10 minutes we were good, then they started to play and we concede two poor goals,” added Lampard. “I felt it knocked us and we didn’t react.”

Guardiola had only won once in five previous visits to Stamford Bridge as Barcelona and City boss, but his side were cruising by halftime.

All 10 Chelsea outfield players were caught ahead of the ball as De Bruyne released Sterling to run through on goal from inside his own half and after the England international hit the post, De Bruyne was first to react and slot home the rebound.

The scoreline could have been far more embarrassing for the hosts had City been more ruthless in the final hour as Foden, Gundogan, Rodrigo and De Bruyne all passed up big chances.

It is at the other end of the field City had sustained a title challenge while waiting for their forwards to find form in the past two months, but they just failed to record a ninth clean sheet in 11 games as Callum Hudson-Odoi slid in at the back post to claim a Chelsea consolation in stoppage time.

Elsewhere, Brendan Rodgers said Leicester had survived a “war” as they climbed to third place with a 2-1 win against Newcastle.

Rodgers’s side struck through James Maddison and Youri Tielemans in the second half at St James’ Park.

Andy Carroll reduced the deficit with his first goal for Newcastle in over 10 years.

Leicester were good value for their first win in three league games as they extended their unbeaten run to four matches.

The Foxes are one point behind leaders Liverpool and Rodgers was pleased with the way they held firm after Carroll set up a tense finale.

“I’m delighted with that. It was always going to be a tight game. We had some really good moments in the first half but just failed with that final ball,” Rodgers said.

“In the second half we stayed strong defensively. Once we got the first goal it opened it up a little bit. It became a war in the last 10 minutes.”

After missing out on a top four finish on the final day of last season, Leicester look well equipped to challenge for Champions League qualification and could even pose a threat to Liverpool’s title defence.

Unable to apply the knockout blow in the first half, Leicester finally took the lead in the 55th minute.

Harvey Barnes led the break and his pass picked out Jamie Vardy, who cut inside before teeing up Maddison’s fierce strike past Darlow.

It was Vardy’s 34th Premier League assist for Leicester, equalling the club record set by Steve Guppy.

Lacking any threat in attack, there was an air of desperation about Newcastle’s rejected penalty appeal following Timothy Castagne’s clean challenge on Callum Wilson.

Tielemans netted in the 72nd minute when the Belgium midfielder met Marc Albrighton’s cross with a fine finish.

Carroll, who started his career with Newcastle before spending eight years away after leaving in 2011, came off the bench to score in the 82nd minute.

His thumping shot after Leicester failed to clear a free-kick was his first goal for his hometown club since December 2010

AFP