Chelsea’s players were captured ‘coaching themselves’ in their 2-1 Premier League defeat to Brighton on Saturday – sparking concerns about the lack of influence from caretaker boss Frank Lampard following his appointment. The Blues have lost all three matches since their record goal-scorer returned to Stamford Bridge after also going down 1-0 at Wolves and 2-0 at Real Madrid.
Chelsea’s season could be all but over on Tuesday when they will attempt to wrestle back the two-goal deficit against Los Blancos on home soil.
And on the basis of their recent calamitous displays, the odds are firmly stacked against Chelsea.
Worrying images from the defeat to Brighton have now surfaced of goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga attempting to assemble Chelsea’s defenders shortly after taking the lead against Brighton on Saturday.
The animated shot-stopper, who has enjoyed an impressive revival in the absence of Edouard Mendy, can be seen barking orders at Trevoh Chalobah, Wesley Fofana and Denis Zakaria during the footage.
Yet despite the Spaniard’s attempts to tighten up Chelsea’s leaky backline, they would continue to concede an array of chances before Brighton eventually punished them with Danny Welbeck’s header.
Julio Enciso would then deliver a hammer blow in the second half when he struck a stunning winner from distance as Brighton continued their march for Europe.
Chelsea fans online were far from impressed with the clips of Kepa organising, highlighting their concerns about Lampard’s inability to fix their struggles on the field.
“Our management have no idea what to do, so the players just have to improvise some s*** as they go,” user Comtrend wrote on Reddit.
“We are managerless,” @CFCDUBois added on Twitter.
@adik09huracan posted: “Kepa talked more than Lampard… that strikes hard.”
“Kepa is doing what Lampard should do before the match,” @bhagwanparticle wrote.
Unsurprisingly, Lampard was far from impressed with what he saw against the Seagulls as he criticised his team’s inability to do the basics.
“We have to address it very quickly, me and the players, because that’s not a Chelsea performance,” Lampard said.
“I’ve been at the club nine days. I don’t like what I saw today.
“I’m not going to try to dress that up in any way. There should be a feeling when you play for Chelsea where you’re proud.
“To get there, there needs to be a new energy. That needs to come back.
“At the moment we’re not in the perfect place. In football you can change the story very quickly.
“We’ll have to have a big desire to do that (against Real) and it will be a different game. We have to energise the crowd.”