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Frank Lampard has returned to Chelsea as a caretaker manager till the end of the season but what happened in the last game of his previous spell which led to his sack?
Frank Lampard is back at Chelsea as a manager on an interim basis till the end of the season following the recent firing of Graham Potter.
The club legend will be back in the dugout at Stamford Bridge for a second spell which may be good or bad news depending on who you ask, considering the first spell ended in a sack.
On Throwback Thursday, the same day of Lampard’s reappointment, a trip down memory lane is worthwhile; here is an in-depth look at Frank Lampard’s last game as Chelsea manager.
The build-up to Frank Lampard’s last game as Chelsea manager
Lampard was ironically fired off the back of a win, the news of his sack broke on January 25, 2021, just one day after leading the Blues to a 3-1 win at home to Luton Town in the FA Cup fourth round.
It was the results before that game that ultimately sealed his fate but in hindsight, 15 wins and seven draws and defeats apiece with 65 goals scored and 32 conceded in 29 games was not a bad record compared to Potter’s 12 wins, eight draws and 11 defeats in 31 games with 33 goals for and 31 against.
Lampard’s first stint was under previous Chelsea owner, Roman Abramovich whose ruthless approach kept the standards at the club really high, much higher than they currently are under the Todd Boehly-led board.
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The 2-0 defeat away at Leicester City in the Premier League five days before the Luton game was the real final straw for Abramovich.
So coming into his final game in charge which was also at Stamford Bridge, the stadium where he enjoyed a long and successful playing career, Lampard’s managerial fate had already been sealed.
Frank Lampard’s last game as Chelsea manager
The match was on a snowy winter afternoon at an empty Stamford Bridge; the dark days of football being played behind closed doors due to the pandemic.
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LINEUP
Chelsea lined up with a 4-2-3-1 formation starting with Kepa Arrizabalaga in goal, behind a central defensive partnership of Kurt Zouma and Andreas Christensen.
Reece James was the right fullback while Italian international Emerson Palmieri started as the left-back.
There was a central midfield duo of Billy Gilmour and Mason Mount who was also the Chelsea captain for the game.
Christian Pulisic was out on the left of the attack and Hakim Ziyech on the right, leaving Timo Werner to operate centrally behind the striker, Tammy Abraham.
Only five of this XI; Kepa, James, Mount, Ziyech and Pulsic, are still Chelsea players at the start of Lampard’s second reign.
Christensen has since left for Barcelona, Zouma and Emerson now both play for West Ham, Billy Gilmour is at Brighton, Werner returned to RB Leipzig and Abraham now struts his stuff in Italy with Roma.
MATCH STATS
Chelsea had 21 shots on goal in the game compared to Luton’s eight and seven on target compared to three for the visitors.
Lampard’s Chelsea dominated their lower-league opponents with 68% possession in a 3-1 win over Luton Town who had 32% possession of the ball.
Luton Town played 321 passes but Chelsea more than doubled that tally with 696 in total with an 87% accuracy, more than Luton’s 73%.
Chelsea were powered to the win by English striker Tammy Abraham who scored all three goals to notch his second hat-trick for the club.
The Tammy Abraham show
Abraham opened the scoring for Chelsea after just 11 minutes of play after some smart work by Timo Werner who found some space behind the defence.
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Werner picked out Abraham with a neat outback and the young English striker made no mistake, converting with a first-time finish into the bottom corner on the snowy surface past the helpless goalkeeper.
He doubled his tally just five minutes later with a brilliant header into the back of the net after being picked out by Reece James’ pinpoint cross.
And although Chelsea conceded in the first half through a goalkeeping error and dropped intensity in the second half, Abraham would not be deterred from claiming the match ball.
He completed his hat trick in the 74th minute with a simple tap-in to finish off a fantastic team move involving Callum Hudson-Odoi.
The last moments of Frank Lampard at Chelsea
Chelsea went on to have one more decisive moment in that game but Timo Werner failed to convert a late penalty he had won himself, denied by Luton goalkeeper Simon Sluga in the 86th minute to keep it 3-1.
Lampard’s muted celebration at the blast of the final whistle suggested that he already knew what was coming as the victory proved insufficient to buy him more time and he was fired the very next day, two days before Chelsea’s next Premier League match against Wolves.
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As though perfectly scripted, the first game awaiting Lampard upon his return as caretaker boss is against Wolves, the Englishman will be leading his charging on a trip to Molineux in an attempt to carry on from where he stopped in 2021.
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