Frank Lampard believes Chelsea must translate their away form into home success if they are to challenge at the head of the Premier League table.
Lampard and his teammates provided an impressive response to their League Cup semi-final, first-leg loss to Swansea at Stamford Bridge by beating Stoke 4-0 in the Premier League at the Britannia Stadium on Saturday.
European champions Chelsea are back on home ground at Stamford Bridge today, when struggling Southampton visit in a game that could see Rafael Benitez’s side close the gap on top two Manchester United and Manchester City.
Photo: AFP
The match marks Chelsea’s game in hand on the Manchester duo, and should they win, the west London club will move to within four points of City, with United a further seven points clear.
In recent seasons, victory would almost be seen as a formality, but successive home reverses — Chelsea lost to bottom club Queens Park Rangers before the Swansea defeat — together with continuing antagonism shown by home supporters to interim manager Benitez mean a home win cannot be guaranteed.
However, Lampard, who became the club’s second highest scorer after netting against Stoke, is adamant the side must get back on track at the Bridge.
The 34-year-old midfielder, whose future is the subject of intense speculation amid reports he will not be offered a new contract when his current deal expires at the end of the season, said: “At the minute, we are a better away team obviously, but that has to change starting with Southampton. We have to start quicker, come out and get the passing and moving like we did at Stoke. The first 20 minutes, they put us under pressure, but once we moved the ball, we settled into the game and were different class. We have been counter-attacking well away from home, but I just think it’s a case of sustaining things when we’re attacking. We have to do it now.”
John Terry made his return to the team as a second half substitute at Stoke and should start, while Benitez must decide between Demba Ba and Fernando Torres for the striker role.
David Luiz should continue in midfield and the Brazilian believes Benitez deserved more credit for his recent efforts.
“Sometimes when you play at home, the other team put everyone back and you don’t have a lot of space to play,” Luiz said. “Then you can make mistakes because you just want to score. We need to work hard to improve. I think Rafa did a great job this week, he showed everybody what we had to do to win this game.”
Southampton were given a major lift in their battle against relegation with victory at fellow strugglers Aston Villa that came from a disputed penalty.
Nigel Adkins’s side have now moved three places and two points clear of the relegation zone and a positive result at Chelsea will reinforce the view they are a club on the up.
However, they are likely to be without Luke Shaw, the highly rated teenage left-back who has caught the attention of Chelsea, after the boyhood Blues fan suffered a gashed knee at Villa Park.
“We’ve got an excellent medical department and we will see what the diagnosis is,” Adkins said. “We’d like to think it’s nothing more than a very heavy challenge, but we will wait and see. It’s quite a big blow he took to his knee.”
Rickie Lambert’s penalty against Villa saw him score his ninth league goal of the season, but the striker believes there is room for improvement.
“I kind of hoped I would be on more. I’m going to try and push on,” he said.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but