Why Chelsea’s response to Arsenal nightmare pleased Frank Lampard despite failure to beat Aston Villa

Chelsea manager Frank Lampard insists he got the response he was looking for despite the Blues’ failure to beat Aston Villa on Monday.

Following a run of three defeats in their last four matches, including a shocking performance in their 3-1 defeat to Arsenal on Boxing Day, Chelsea drew 1-1 with Aston Villa at Stamford Bridge.

While Lampard’s side did not return to winning ways, the performance was much improved, and the Chelsea boss refused to give his players the same public dressing down he did 48 hours earlier.

“Performance-wise, I did [get the response],” he told talkSPORT. “Result, not quite, but we were unfortunate.

“We created enough to win the game and we had some really good play and good possession against a team who are in really good form.

“No team is going to find it easy against Villa this year when they’re in a hot patch.

“But we played well and didn’t get the win which I felt we deserved.

“We conceded in one of our most difficult moments, we had a funny patch with a man down injured and they scored.”

Olivier Giroud opened the scoring with a fine header in the first-half before Anwar El Ghazi equalised for the visitors.

Either side could’ve won the game as John McGinn and Ben Chilwell were both denied screamers by the woodwork, although Chelsea were the dominant force throughout the match.

And that was what pleased Lampard, who had accused his players of laziness during the defeat at the Emirates.

“The dressing room talk stays there,” Lampard added. “The first-half wasn’t good enough for us and we haven’t had many of those. Not with the lack of energy in the game.

“They know that. And today they showed a great reaction because there was energy in that game, there was quality in that game, and there was a lot of personality in that game.

“We just didn’t have that bit in the final third to finish them off.”