Former Chelsea and Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas has urged the Blues players to take a “look in the mirror” after their 3-1 loss to Arsenal last night.
The Gunners were 3-0 up at the Emirates Stadium less than 35 minutes into the Premier League clash, thanks to a brace from Martin Odegaard and a goal from Gabriel Jesus.
Chelsea did pull one back in the second half through January signing Noni Madueke, but it was too little too late in the end.
Speaking after the game on Sky Sports, Fabregas admitted he felt sorry for caretaker boss Frank Lampard and believes the players need to take some responsibility.
He stated, “It’s difficult to say sometimes. I feel for him [Lampard] and in a way, I completely understand where he’s coming from and what we’ve been saying here. It’s just sometimes about the players.
“You have to look in the mirror yourself and ask questions. Nowadays, from what I see in this new generation, not so much, 10/15 years ago we didn’t used to have it. Nowadays the excuse is to look at the manager.
“The manager doesn’t play, it’s the eleven players who need to show up tonight. You train during the week to show up here and to show heart and to show ambition to win a football game. Especially when you’re playing for Chelsea, the same way that Arsenal did tonight.”
Fabregas certainly has a point here, whilst Lampard is arguably not the strongest manager when it comes to tactics and his setup, the players should take and accept some of the blame.
When you look at that squad, there is absolutely no way that team that shouldn’t be floundering in mid-table. There’s certainly enough quality and talent there to be picking up better results than a lot of the ones they have so far in the 2022/23 campaign.
This summer could prove to be a very important one for Chelsea, not just in terms of signings, but also letting go of the right players. You could certainly question plenty of the players for their attitude from the past season.