Chelsea lost scandalously to Arsenal, 3-1, on Saturday evening’s Boxing Day fixture, to end the year on a loosing note.
The derby win, at the Emirates Stadium, saw Arsenal end a seven-game winless run in the Premier League.
Chelsea manager was left furious by his players’ performance that he branded them “lazy”, among other things, in a strong worded post match reaction.
The club legend called out his side for forsaking the basic requirements like running, covering, among others.
“It’s not tactics or systems, it’s whether you want to run, back your team-mate up, sprint, or jog? And say ‘maybe I don’t have to run’ – we took that decision instead of the right one.I am angry because I want us to win games,” Lampard fumed.
The Blues tactician looked back at the lost opportunity at three points and a 3rd place finish that never was to be.
“It was an opportunity to go second against a team that are having a tough time. You either make it difficult for them or you give them a little opening and we did that from minute one and continued for 45 minutes. It was lazy to give away a penalty and lazy to give away a free-kick that he puts in the top corner,” he said.
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“It wasn’t good enough. We fought in the second half but in the first half we gave ourselves too much to do. The players who came on added speed energy and intensity.
“I’ll take responsibility on the outside but the players also have to take responsibility. The message was clear – Arsenal are a dangerous team. When you go out and play 60 or 70 per cent then you’re not going to win any Premier League games,” Lampard ended.
The win over London rivals, Chelsea, now moves Arsenal to14th in the league.
“It’s a really big win for us. We were really disappointed with the results – not so much the performances,” Arteta said.
‘Our players were suffering, our fans were suffering.
“It doesn’t get any better than winning a London derby against Chelsea on Boxing Day. Hopefully this is a turning point. I know they can play at this level. We know how good Chelsea are but big moments in the game we were the better team,” he declared.
Chelsea will now be looking to return to winning ways when they host Aston Vila at Stamford Bridge, on the 28th of December.