Daniel Storey: Frank Lampard's reputation takes a pounding
Chelsea manager Frank Lampard watches his side’s 3-1 defeat to Arsenal on St Stephen’s night. His side have lost three of their last four league matches.Â
Frank Lampard may well believe he is due a little more patience than most. Having kept Chelsea in the top four last season and been afforded an ample transfer budget in the summer, Lampard may have stressed to Chelsea that those players would take time to settle in.
He’s bought half a new defence and half a new attack. At both ends of the pitch, Chelsea do indeed have teething problems. But that’s simply not good enough. You don’t get to simply demand more time because you are a rookie manager and have several players who are not totally au fait with one another.
After all, the suspicion is that Chelsea are getting worse not better.
They have lost three of their last four league matches at precisely the time that other clubs look to be finding their own feet. Lampard’s Chelsea are now closer, in points terms, to crisis club Arsenal than league leaders Liverpool. Their first 15 games constitutes their second worst start to a season in a decade and the exception was 2015/16 when Jose Mourinho had already been sacked by now. Lampard is not hanging onto his job by a thread yet, but his reputation might be.
Arsenal’s crisis is existential enough that one home win — even against a supposed title challenger — will not lift the gloom. But it’s amazing just how much positivity one performance can create. Arsenal outplayed Chelsea and Mikel Arteta out-thought Lampard. His side exploited weaknesses on both flanks and fully merited their comfortable victory.
Most interesting was the personnel that provoked such a response. With Willian and David Luiz unavailable — the two Kia Joorabchian clients closest to the first team, Arteta picked Emile Smith-Rowe, Pablo Mari, and Bukayo Saka and they were among Arsenal’s best performers.
This must now be Arteta’s mandate. No longer should players walk straight back into the team just because they are high-earning, senior professionals. Instead the focus should be on youth and those members of the squad that Arteta believes have the hunger and determination to thrust the club back up the table.
Every Crystal Palace supporter was looking for a reaction. What they witnessed was another abdication of responsibility and surefire signs that Roy Hodgson might have come to the end of his natural life at Selhurst Park. There is no great shame in falling a goal behind at Villa Park, but Palace’s incapability to get back into the contest with a numerical advantage suggests that something is wrong.
Hodgson’s departure may be accelerated because he is leaving soon anyway. His contract expires at the end of the season and there are few that expect it to be renewed. Given Hodgson’s age — at 73 he is the oldest manager in England’s top four divisions — this might well be his last job. The only reason for Palace to lean towards the short-term option is if Hodgson is getting the best out of his team. That’s evidently not happening. What price Eddie Howe coming in by the end of January?
Sheffield United should not feel obliged to sack Chris Wilder. If they reason that he retains the ability to lead them to promotion next season, that might indeed be the preferable option to appointing a new manager now who has little hope of keeping them up and will rip up the blueprint next season.
But it would be a highly unusual move.
Norwich City kept faith with Daniel Farke and may well reap the rewards of doing so, but Norwich were relegated as a promoted club having spent little money on new players. Even their disastrous total of 21 league points looks set to dwarf Sheffield United’s total.
Sheffield United are now in the realms of record-breakers. Their start to the season now equals the worst ever in England’s top four divisions. Fail to win any of their next three league fixtures (Burnley, Crystal Palace, and Newcastle) and it’s hard to see them even reaching 15 points. What a sorry situation.
There has been a lot written in the week since Leeds’ chaotic 6-2 defeat at Old Trafford, most of it slightly unfair. The backlash to Marcelo Bielsa’s style is in response to the effusive praise he has received in the months since Leeds secured promotion back to the top flight.
Of course Leeds have conceded more goals than Bielsa would like against the best teams in the country, but ultimately those results will not determine Leeds’ fate this season.
They have played eight league games against opponents who finished outside the top eight last season and have won six of those matches. That will be plenty enough to ensure they stay up.
But Bielsa will still be delighted at the manner of their victory over Burnley. Sean Dyche’s side unsurprisingly opted for an aerial assault and aimed to maximise the number of set-piece opportunities they created, but Islan Meslier largely stood firm. For all the histrionics, Leeds are a promoted club that sit atop the bottom half. That is more than satisfactory.
