Lampard claims key substitution made all the difference in Chelsea win
Frank Lampard felt a key second-half change made all the difference as Chelsea beat West Ham 3-0 at Stamford Bridge in Monday Night Football.
Tammy Abraham scored twice as Chelsea ended their recent mini-slump by beating the Hammers to move up to fifth in the table.
Back-to-back defeats had seen the Blues slip down the table but they made the perfect start against their London rivals as Thiago Silva powered home a header in the 10th minute.
Timo Werner spurned a couple of good chances to add to the hosts’ lead, but he played his part in his side’s second 12 minutes from time as his weak shot was turned in by Abraham.
The Chelsea striker, back in the side in place of Olivier Giroud, then netted another barely two minutes later when he was in the right place to sweep home from a tight angle after Christian Pulisic had missed a simple header from a cross.
The scoreline somewhat flattered Chelsea but that did not bother Lampard too much, with Mateo Kovavic proving a key addition from the bench in the second half.
He told BBC Sport: “It was nice to see that at the end because we had a period at 1-0 where it was tough, we dealt with that well. Once we got the second goal, Kovacic came on and got us up the pitch and we could have had more goals in the end.
Werner doing the right things
“That’s the period Timo (Werner) is in, it’s unfortunate but he’s getting in the positions – when one (goal) goes in it will be a run for him. Tammy (Abraham) and Oli (Giroud) both bring different things, Tammy did his thing today and that’s what we needed.
“West Ham are a good team on good form, so many threats, I thought today would be a tough match and it proved to be so, even in the not beautiful moments we defended superbly – Thiago Silva did brilliantly with that.
“We dropped off slightly and it was important tonight we came back, there were loads of things for the team to show their character – we want more.
“Christmas has been changed for everybody this year, for the lads we just have to prepare for Arsenal, it’s a busy time of year for us.”