Frank Lampard has now lost all six of his games in charge of Chelsea since replacing Graham Potter (Picture: Sky Sports)
Frank Lampard singled out Noni Madueke for praise and promised the Chelsea youngster he will get ‘more opportunities’ as a reward for his display against Arsenal.
The January recruit from PSV Eindhoven has been given only fleeting opportunities to impress since his arrival but was thrown a starting opportunity against the Gunners.
Chelsea were blown away by a devastating first-half display from Mikel Arteta’s side which was desperate to bounce back from last week’end’s’s mauling at the hands of Manchester City.
While some of his more experienced teammates failed to cover themselves in glory, Madueke did at least show signs of promise and registered his first goal for his new club midway through the second period.
While Lampard refused to be drawn on the display of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, making his first league start since November’s reverse fixture, he did draw encouragement from the way Madueke brought the fight to Arsenal even when the game appeared lost.
On Aubameyang, he said: ‘I’m not going to comment on individuals in the game. Let’s talk about the collective. It’s a performance.’
Lampard went on to acknowledge Madueke’s display, saying: ‘If I want to talk about an individual it’s Noni, who scored the goal, plays how he’s been training.
Noni Madueke scored Chelsea’s consolation goal against Arsenal (Picture: Getty)
‘He’ll get a lot more opportunities.’
Lampard has now presided over a miserable run of six consecutive defeats since his appointment as interim manager and the club legend was at a loss to outline why his team failed to show the requisite fight against an Arsenal team, who should have been vulnerable as a consequence of their recent wobble.
He said: ‘We weren’t good enough, we were too nice to play against, too passive. In possession we weren’t playing balls over their press, or winning second balls.
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‘Chelsea have been a big success for 20 years domestically and in the Champions League, at the moment we’re not in that position. But from the moment I’ve been here it’s been evident we’re too nice as a team.
‘We can’t change things overnight but we better get their quickly because we have another game at the weekend and games to come.
‘The passive nature of our game you can attribute it to many things. There’s the easy go to that the players don’t care enough, but they do care. You can be low on confidence but still show a dynamic side to your games. All the things we spoke about before the game we didn’t do.’
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There was at least one promising sign.