Gary Neville confused as to why Frank Lampard did not play Olivier Giroud against Arsenal
Speaking on Sky Sports (h/t Metro), Manchester United legend Gary Neville questioned Chelsea manager Frank Lampard for not playing Olivier Giroud in the match against Arsenal.
Arsenal raced to a 2-0 lead before half-time and Chelsea looked clueless. The young midfield of Arsenal pressed and made life difficult for the Blues.
Chelsea looked clueless and were made to pay for their lack of creativity when Bukayo Saka looped a mishit cross over Edouard Mendy’s head to make it 3-0.
Chelsea only looked threatening after going 3-0 down, as they resorted to bombarding the Gunners box with crosses. All in all, Chelsea attempted 26 crosses on the day.
However, just 1 out of those 26 crosses resulted in a shot on goal, which was Tammy Abraham’s consolation goal in the 85th minute. (h/t Metro)
Olivier Giroud watched the calamitous match from the bench as he did not feature in any capacity against his former club. The Frenchman had scored 2 goals in his last 3 games but was an unused substitute on the day.
No end product
Speaking about Chelsea incessantly crossing into the box, Neville failed to understand why an aerial threat like Giroud was not brought on.
“I joked that he (Thiago Silva) may have to stay up in open play for the crosses; and he has done.”
Neville’s comments do make sense. Chelsea could have used someone like Giroud to be at the end of the crosses. If he was brought on at half-time when the game was 2-0, maybe the result would be different.
“It’s why I was surprised Giroud didn’t enter the fray 20 minutes ago because they have been dangerous when they put it in the box.”
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The Blues were also woeful when it came to shot conversion as only 3 of our 19 attempted shots were on target. The Chelsea manager did react by taking Timo Werner off at half-time, but it did not pay dividends.