Lampard will fear for his future if shocking Chelsea home form doesn’t improve after Saints stuns Blues at the Bridge – The Sun

SOUTHAMPTON secured back-to-back away wins while Frank Lampard can’t wait to see the back of Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea lost consecutive home games in the Premier League for the first time in more than eight years and it is becoming a big concern.

CHELSEA'S PREMIER LEAGUE HOME RESULTS UNDER LAMPARD

The Blues' home form under Frank Lampard has taken a turn for the worse

1-1 vs Leicester

2-2 vs Sheffield United

1-2 vs Liverpool

2-0 vs Brighton

1-0 vs Newcastle

2-0 vs Crystal Palace

0-1 vs West Ham

2-1 vs Aston Villa

0-1 vs Bournemouth

0-2 vs Southampton

The Saints join Bournemouth as the latest team to turn up in West London with the perfect plan to roll over a Chelsea team which plays like lions away yet like losers at home.

A spectacular solo effort from Michael Obafemi and a brilliant 25-pass move finished off by Nathan Redmond has made this the perfect Christmas so far for the Saints.

Six points from two tough trips, firstly to Aston Villa last weekend and now to Chelsea’s increasingly fragile home turf, all helping to put distance between them and the bottom three.

For Chelsea it is two steps backwards for every step forward at the moment.

Going to Tottenham last Sunday and nicking the spoils in a feisty London derby is a massive psychological boost but it means nothing if you can’t build on it in the following game.

Lampard was playing for Chelsea the last time they were sunk in successive home league games – that’s how long ago it was.

A 5-3 stuffing by Arsenal followed by 2-1 at home to Liverpool, under the dreaded Andre Villas-Boas who didn’t last too long in the job.

Lampard should have a much longer shelf life as the incumbent manager but he has already admitted there are certain ‘non negotiables’ in this job.

Home form is presumably one of them.

This was not a case of Saints getting away with it either. More the other way around. It could easily have been a proper thumping at home to a team which had not kept a clean sheet since mid-September, until today.

Chelsea had twice as many shots as Southampton but exactly the same number on target – three.

Lampard also made three changes to the team but stuck with the same 3-4-3 formation from Sunday’s unexpected win at Spurs.

Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl took the unusual step of resting in-form striker Danny Ings.

In fact the front two were rotated, with Michael Obafemi and Che Adams replacing Ings and strike partner Shane Long.

It turned out to be a masterstroke. Obafemi in particular was dynamic – given a rare start the Irishman made the most of it with his first Premier League goal in more than a year.

Stocky and short, he was a physical handful for Chelsea’s defensive trio of Antonio Rudgier, Fikayo Tomori and Kurt Zouma.

Source: Read Full Article