A blog of two halves

An old silent film running at half speed

Frank Lampard isn’t the angriest person in Stamford Bridge. There are 40,000 angrier ones.

17 December 2019
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Mason Mount of Chelsea. PICTURE: GETTY IMAGES

Frank Lampard isn't the angriest person in Stamford Bridge. There are 40,000 angrier ones.

Chelsea's pitiful performance against Bournemouth – another 1-0 home defeat – means the honeymoon is well and truly over.

Lampard better get his act together, because much more of this type of dire, lazy play by his cosseted team of 'superstars' simply won't be tolerated by the board.

It doesn't get much worse than failing to mount any meaningful attacks against a struggling side unable to field most of its top names.

And talking of Mount, what has happened to the feisty, inventive midfielder who illuminated the Blues' games in the first half of the season? He appears to be going backwards in terms of development.

Chelsea are about to drop out of the top four in the Premier League as they get ready to meekly surrender to Spurs and Arsenal and invite their London rivals (and anyone else who might be interested) to take their Champions League place.

Last weekend was a low-water mark for the Blues as they indulged in time-consuming build-up play instead of doing what successful teams do... go for the jugular.

Without bite, without togetherness, without effort, Chelsea deserve to slide down the table. Why not simply hand Tottenham the points on Sunday, and save Blues fans what will be a wasted journey?

Watching Chelsea at the moment is like watching an old silent film running at half speed.

The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and unless specifically stated are not necessarily those of Hammersmith & Fulham Council.

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Tim Harrison

Tim is our Chelsea FC blogger.

He also writes our Shepherds Bush Cricket Club match reports during the football close season.

Tim has been writing Chelsea match reports since the late 1980s for newspapers and, more recently, websites.

When he first reported on the Blues, the press box was a metal cage suspended over the lip of the old west stand - and you reached it via a precarious walkway over the heads of the fans.

But he has been a Chelsea fan since his father took an excited seven-year-old to watch Chelsea v Manchester United in the mid 1960s... and covered his ears every time the chanting got too ripe.

In July 2005 he wrote The Rough Guide to Chelsea, published by Penguin, which sold 15,000 copies.

His favourite player of all time is Charlie Cooke, the mazy winger who lit up Chelsea's left wing in the 60s and 70s.

When he isn't watching the Blues, Tim acts, paints, writes and researches local history.

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