Lampard: 'Brighton deserves to beat Chelsea harder'

"Brighton was probably not happy with the score, they could have scored more," said Lampard after the defeat at Stamford Bridge. "The better team won and could have won harder. Brighton play as a team having worked together for a while."

Yesterday, Chelsea were underwhelmed with only 42 per cent possession, eight shots with two shots on target, compared to 26 and 10 for their opponents. Lampard admitted Brighton was superior in ideas, fitness, energy, connection, and criticized Chelsea for being weak in every way and unable to do well at the basics of football, which is to fight and run. "To improve takes time, but the first thing is to do the basics that we were wrong and lacking today. And that cannot be for a club of the size of Chelsea."

At Stamford Bridge, Chelsea didn't start well but suddenly got ahead thanks to Conor Gallagher's deflected kick in the 13th minute. This goal helped "The Blues" cut a series of four matches in all competitions, when losing. Real 0-2 in the Champions League, lost to Wolves 0-1, drew Liverpool 0-0 and lost to Aston Villa 0-2 in the Premier League.

But then, Chelsea could not hold the ball and was pushed deep into the home field. Brighton controlled the game and completed the comeback with two goals divided equally in two halves. Substituting striker Danny Welbeck headed the equalizer at the end of the first half and then Julio Enciso fired a cannonball from outside the box to make it 2-1 in the 69th minute. With this result, Chelsea still ranked 11th with 39. points and 14 points behind the European Cup group.

Lampard stressed the only way for Chelsea to get through this difficult period is to regain confidence and work hard. The 44-year-old coach will analyze professionally the loss to Brighton, and urge the students not to be too disappointed to immediately look forward to the rematch with Real in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final on April 18. In the first leg, Chelsea lost 0-2 at the Bernabeu when Karim Benzema and Marco Asensio conceded a goal.

Lampard wants to get cheers from the audience, but thinks the focus is on more passionate performances from the players. "I know the fans will be cheering for the club, but we have to play with great energy and fight. It's the bare minimum and depends on us," he added of the match against Real.

Under new president Todd Boehly, Chelsea spent a total of 668 million USD to bring in 16 players over the last two transfer windows, for the 2022-2023 season. That's not including the money to fire Thomas Tuchel, appoint and continue to fire Graham Potter. However, "The Blues" have not been able to improve their performance.

"This is not about the club I used to play for. This is another era, times have changed," said Lampard. "After I left the job, others came and succeeded. It was Chelsea, this club is bigger than all of us. Chelsea are not in the position we want to be. Setting a timeframe for that is not possible. "We can, but we have to work as if we're going to get there tomorrow. If you work hard, you'll get there as quickly as possible."