Frank Lampard’s second season in charge of his beloved Chelsea is underway, and the Blues’ boss has been busy, adding several new faces to his squad ahead of the new Premier League campaign – splashing a massive amount of money along the way.
The south west London side, who are usually tipped to win in the betting exchange, have spent a huge £250 million this summer on Germany youngsters Kai Havertz (£100m) and Timo Werner (£50m), Leicester City and England left-back Ben Chilwell (£50m), Ajax winger Hakim Ziyech (£36m), and Rennes goalkeeper Édouard Mendy (£22m), whilst Thiago Silva and Malang Sarr were brought in for free.
Lampard’s inaugural season as first team manager at Stamford Bridge, where he spent 13 years as a player – racking up an incredible 210 goals – was relatively pressure free. The former Derby County manager was unable to add any new faces to his squad, due to a transfer ban, and was left needing to integrate several academy players into his team, including Mason Mount, Reece James, Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori, and Billy Gilmour.
But, Lampard’s merging of youth and experience worked. Abraham was the club’s top scorer last season, with an impressive 18 goals in all competitions, they even secured a lucrative Champions League spot, as well as reaching the FA Cup final – where they agonisingly lost to bitter rivals Arsenal.
Lampard’s season was even rounded off with a nomination for Premier League Manager of the Year, however, unsurprisingly, that personal accolade went to Liverpool’s title winning manager Jürgen Klopp – who ended the Reds’ 30-year league drought.
However, this season is going to be completely different for Lampard. He has had free rein in the transfer market and has brought in some incredible talent. And, when you spend the amount of money like Lampard has to improve his squad, that comes with a lot of added pressure.
The Chelsea boss is well aware of the pressure on his shoulders this season, speaking ahead of the Blues’ opening match against Brighton and Hove Albion, Lampard said: ““I’m very aware that a club like Chelsea, even though we had a transfer ban, even though the year was difficult, expectations are going to go up hugely,”
“And I just have to accept that as part of the job, and try and go about my job as well as I can. And then if I am having relationships, between managing up (to the board) or managing around me, I have to be as good as I can with those, because they’re really important.”
Chelsea’s season got off to a winning start away to the Seagull’s, with Jorginho, James, and Kurt Zouma helping spur the Blues onto a 3-1 win, but Lampard’s side were pegged back when Liverpool came to Stamford Bridge. Andreas Christensen was sent off and the Reds ran out 2-0 winners.
Chelsea were, again, disappointing against West Brom. Lampard’s side salvaged a 3-3 draw after going three goals down, but you’d expect a team with that calibre to win that game easily.
Whilst, it has taken a number of weeks for the majority of the summer signings to get up to pace, Werner and Havertz were the only two to feature in the opening two games of the season. Werner’s performances have looked promising, and he has won a penalty in each of the games. However, Havertz looked well below par in the two league games and was even dragged off at half-time against the Premier League champions.
Lampard will be hoping that, when all his summer signings are fully fit, his team will begin firing on all cylinders. As he said himself, the expectations of the club are huge, and he’ll need to get his hands on a trophy this season to keep the board, and the fans, happy.