Chelsea manager Frank Lampard was left frustrated with his side’s inconsistency and unhappy with defenders not tracking back after a shock 3-2 defeat to West Ham on Wednesday night.
The Blues had been enjoying a superb return to action since the enforced break from football, but their winning run came to an end in east London thanks to goals from Tomas Soucek, Michail Antonio and a late winner from Andriy Yarmolenko.
Willian had put Chelsea ahead and equalised for them, but it was not enough as the Stamford Bridge side missed the opportunity to climb to third in the table.
Lampard is understandably frustrated with a level of inconsistency after beating Manchester City and Leicester last week, but losing to the struggling Hammers.
He has also picked out the inability to track back when opponents are on the counter-attack, and while he did not name names, fingers have been pointed from elsewhere at Marcos Alonso.
‘It happens, it is the Premier League and if you make mistakes like we did, we dominated the game in terms of possession, but make mistakes and teams will hurt you,’ Lampard told the BBC.
‘I’m not happy with any of the goals. You don’t get given victories for scoring two goals, you have to be better than that.
‘There were moments they counter-attacked, which we knew they would. There were details in the game which we knew but we lost because we didn’t get them right.
‘It is why we are fighting for top four not one or two, because we don’t get things right as much as the big boys do. I am not happy with tonight but at the same time we are two points ahead of Manchester United, who have been going great for some time.
‘If you don’t get details right in big games, you’re going to drop points. I think at times we have played really well this season. As a group we need to find more consistency.
‘We have to defend the moment better. Against West Ham you have to make recovery runs. That is the bit we got wrong.’
Sky Sports pundit Gary Neville made it clear that he blamed Alonso for West Ham’s final goal as he failed to track his run.
‘What are you doing, Marcos Alonso? What are you doing? That’s his running back speed,’ Neville said on commentary.
‘It’s cost Chelsea the game, along with a poor piece of defending from [Antonio] Rudiger.
‘Marcos Alonso is level with [Andriy] Yarmolenko when the counter-attack starts and he doesn’t bother.’
Speaking to Sky Sports, Lampard reiterated his points, and his side’s failure to run back and defend was on his mind.
‘I get to see this group closely and I’ve seen us play great games then have moments where there’s the opportunity to capitalise and that’s the difference at the moment. We have work to do,’ said the Blues boss.
‘There’s without a doubt a good group of players in there but then when you analyse the consistency, you feel a game like this is coming. Again, that shows there’s work to do.
‘If we are opening up to try and score that winning goal then we have to be prepared to run back the other way and defend. And defend better.’
Chelsea have the chance to bounce back at home to Watford on Saturday.
MORE: Gary Neville blasts Marcos Alonso for ‘costing Chelsea the game’ at West Ham
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