Frank Lampard claimed that Chelsea “probably deserved to win” against Aston Villa after his team were held to a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge
Chelsea were much improved from their sluggish 3-1 defeat to Arsenal at the weekend, opening the scoring through Olivier Giroud before Villa drew level through Anwar El Ghazi in the second half. Despite both sides creating plenty of chances, nobody could break the impasse.
“It’s a draw against a good team, the performance was good,” Lampard said after the match. “I thought we probably deserved to win the game but we didn’t.
“We saw a lot of [good] signs today in the attitude of the team and some of the play, without having the final bit in the final third. It leaves us having to do more of the same.”
The result leaves Chelsea sixth in the Premier League, six points behind Liverpool at the summit. “The table’s still tight,” Lampard went on. “We’ve had a funny patch, but it remains really close at the top of the league.
“Off the back of a really good run we’ve had a difficult time, but today I saw some really good signs that I liked… it’s a point, we wanted more, but if we keep playing with the same attitude then we’ll get back to winning after a short period where we haven’t been.”
Dean Smith, meanwhile, admitted he was “pleased with the point” after another excellent performance from his side.
“I thought it was a really good point today, it’s a tough place to come,” he said. “They rotated what is a very strong squad, we knew and we thought they would do that.”
Barring Tyrone Mings, who received a red card at the weekend, Smith fielded the same side he sent out against Crystal Palace, despite Villa coming off the back of a hard-fought 3-0 win with 10 men barely 48 hours previous.
“Before the game I had to weigh up what was the most important: rotation and fresh legs or momentum and confidence. In my mind, it was momentum and confidence.
“I spoke to all the players, especially the ones who produced really big numbers against Crystal Palace, and they looked me in the eye and said they were ready to go again.
“You’ve got to have that trust in your players. I certainly have that with my players at the moment and they’re not letting me down, that’s for sure.”
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from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3aSWaEX
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