Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard hails Juan Mata’s impact
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Valencia-c40863 scored on his debut after coming on as a substitute against Norwich City last Saturday and Lampard believes
the width Mata offers will help the London clubs against Manchester United and Manchester City.
Both the Manchester clubs have gotten off to brilliant starts in the new English Premier League, winning all their fixtures. While Manchester City secured a 5-1 win over Tottenham Hotspur on Saturday, Manchester United destroyed http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Arsenal-c38429 in a 8-2 win over
the London side at Old Trafford. This is worrying for the Blues, since they face the Red Devils after the international break.
Even though Chelsea have not lost a match in the new season, they are behind Manchester United and Manchester City on points, having drawn their opening game against Stoke City. In their next fixture against West Bromwich Albion they barely managed a win
and on Saturday defeated Norwich City 3-1 in a highly explosive match.
Lampard said he believed Mata was the perfect signing for the club, since the Spaniard would provide the much needed width. After the departure of Arjen Robben and Damien Duff, the Blues have not had natural wingers; something the http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749 midfielder believes
has affected their game in recent seasons. However, the arrival of Mata assures the Blues will return to their winning ways.
Lampard said while speaking to reporters:
“Everyone harks back to the days of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Arjen-Robben-c6521 and Damien Duff, when they were running down the wings and crossing balls in.
It is always a great weapon and, personally, I love it when we have that width because it gives you time to arrive late in the box and open teams up.
We have other players who can do that but to see Mata do that early on, and also to slip inside playing one-twos and look so sharp, it gave us that different alternative to our play, which is great to see.”
Mata was brought on as a substitute along with http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Didier-Drogba-c11044 was knocked out. His presence made all the difference and he made his contribution count as he found the back of the net in stoppage time to
guarantee his new club a 3-1 win over a ten man Norwich City.
While Chelsea seem to be behind the Manchester clubs early on in the season, Lampard was confident they would catch up as the season progressed. The England international revealed it was just the beginning of the season and he expected a lot of surprises
along the way, he was confident his side would present both Manchester United and Manchester City with a tough challenge.
Lampard said:
“It is still early in the season.”
He continued:
“Teams at this early stage of the season are quite hard to read.”
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