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Football London
Football London
Sport
Bobby Vincent

Every word Frank Lampard said on Chelsea draw, Raheem Sterling, Trevoh Chalobah, N'Golo Kante

What was the thinking behind starting Edouard Mendy?

"We've got two good goalkeepers. Edou has been training well and Kepa has been playing really well. In this situation we're in, to give Edou a game today was no problem. It's not for me to say, 'one level is here and one level is there'. He's a goalkeeper we trust so he started."

Did you feel the team were struggling with set-pieces?

"The long loopy throw is a difficult one to defend against. We've seen them score goals in games where it has been important for them and you know it's coming. They're a bigger team than us, which is just a natural thing. The threat of set-pieces, counter-attacks and direct play were the biggest threats and the players knew that."

For Raheem to score a couple of goals today, how important is that ahead of next season?

"Yeah, it is important. They're small steps forward. Raheem is a player that has the credit in the bank, as such, that he's been a regular goal scorer in the Premier League and for his country. To see him score there, that's Raheem, arriving for a cross and then individual brilliance. I'm very happy for him.

"It's what we need at the top end of the pitch. Raheem has done it and he's done it again. You need to win games when you have 76 per cent possession and you need killers at the top end of the pitch and Raheem has proven to be that. At the moment, we do not have enough of that."

READ MORE: N'Golo Kante absent from Chelsea squad with groin injury after Frank Lampard update

What do you want to see in the final few games from your team?

"Good play, some results, compete, show pride – the things you want to see all of the time. It doesn't matter about the opposition. For me, it doesn't matter about the situation and that starts now for Man City. That has to go through the week."

Injury news...

"Kante is unfit, he hurt his groin in training yesterday, so he's going to be a two or three-week injury. Betts [Bettinelli] is still not fit. Carney was not well overnight."

What pleased you today?

"What pleased me wasn't so much the week's training. The plan and idea was before the game that we were going to have a lot of ball in their half, so we have to be really dynamic to move their back-five. We had to make sure our counter-pressing positions were good, which they were to be fair.

"What displeased me was in the first half we didn't do it with enough urgency to break the back-five. It was too safe and sideways. In the second half, when we underlapped them, we get a goal and we show urgency, we're running forward and we get the other goal. So that's it."

Chalobah had another good game...

"Yes. A really good game. Trevoh was fantastic. When you ask him to do something, he does it. He steps in with urgency, he defends well, he's physically great. I thought he had a really good game, I agree."

On the Forest first goal, to the untrained eye, it looked as if he [Awoniyi] beat three Chelsea players to the ball. What did you see there?

"I saw that."

And how much did that frustrate you?

"Look, the defensive goals you give away when you're not really conceding many chances in the game, the long throw is the second one. They can happen. It's not something where training affected it. You don't spend all week recreating that moment because that can happen.

"What I'm more disappointed about is what I referenced there, we lost 45 minutes in the game where we had all of the control but we weren't doing the things we were talking about before the game. It's not good to play at 60 or 70 per cent in the last third. The last third has to be 100 per cent, it has to be repetitive. That's not something that can change overnight.

"I've just been asked about what we do in training all week; it's not the training at this point in the season that is going to change this season and what these games looks like, it's the idea, sticking with the idea and doing it, doing it, doing it. In the second-half, where we changed bits of our game, it looked different. It looked like a game you'd want to come and watch.

"We were playing like we want the team to play, but you have to have speed in the final third of the game and at the moment, we're too comfortable getting up there and being slow and it's not hard enough to defend against. So that is a game for me with big possession where we should have more shots, be more clinical, have more killers, but at the moment that isn't the case. I think that's a process that will need time because that's not changing right now because as much as you want to talk about it, it has to be impacted by players affecting it and doing it."

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