Frank Lampard blasted his Chelsea team after they were defeated by Leicester City and says they did not ‘do the basics like running or sprinting’ as they fell to a 2-0 defeat.
Leicester moved to the top of the Premier League table and piled the pressure on under-fire Lampard with a comfortable win at the King Power Stadium on Tuesday.
Foxes midfielder Wilfred Ndidi gave his team the lead after only six minutes with a good strike that hit the post before beating Edouard Mendy.
Chelsea thought they had won a penalty after Christian Pulisic was brought down by Jonny Evans but VAR confirmed it took place just outside the penalty area.
Chelsea rarely threatened to mount a comeback and Lampard conceded his side did not meet the ‘bare minimums’ as they slipped to a fifth defeat from eight games.
He told Sky Sports: ‘Beaten by the better team. They were sharper than us, ran more than us and they looked in form – we looked out of form.
‘There were quite a lot of moments where our sharpness wasn’t there, those are moments you have to dig in and the basics are important like running and sprinting and we didn’t do that.
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‘The most disappointing thing is to come here and lose the game but the basics off the ball are important. The game on the ball was a bit slow at times but it was okay, we created a few opportunities and I thought it was a penalty but I’m not going to lean on those things. We weren’t good enough.
‘We won against Fulham without playing brilliant, from that we come and lose a game so it’s a small step backwards.
‘I am worried about the slump – from the form we were in to get so quickly into the form we’re now in and we’ve had some wins but five losses in eight isn’t where we want to be. ‘It takes character to get out of that – I’m not against the lads in the dressing room because they’re disappointed.
‘It’s a young team and it’s a big lesson that if you come off it and think you’re fine then you’ve got to get yourself out of the hole.’
Leicester boss Rodgers said: ‘We played against a Chelsea team that is very talented and has outstanding players but we were very good and ran our socks off without the ball, which you have to do in these games.
‘I was really pleased with how we closed the game. I felt in the second half our defensive block was much than in the first but we still carried a threat.’
