A stat shared by Squawka epitomises what a big mistake Frank Lampard made by not bringing Olivier Giroud on this evening.
Chelsea suffered a heavy defeat to Arsenal, who headed into today’s game 15th in the Premier League table. The Gunners were there for the taking, but Lampard’s men looked completely impotent in attack, for all but the final ten minutes, when it was far too late.
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Chelsea’s only idea in terms of how to get a goal back was to desperately fling the ball into the penalty area, but unfortunately for them, they didn’t have Olivier Giroud on the pitch to get on the end of said crosses.
We say unfortunate, but that was Lampard’s decision to make all three of his substitutions without looking to Giroud, even though Chelsea were 2-0 down when he made his first and even then the Frenchman would have made the most sense.
Tammy Abraham eventually scored to end the run shown by this Squawka stat, but the point stands that Giroud is Chelsea’s most effective forward, especially away from home, and it’s mind-boggling that Lampard didn’t so much as give him a minute this evening.