Frank Lampard’s disappointing start to his second spell as Chelsea manager continued as the team lost 2-1 at home to Brighton in the Premier League on Saturday.
Julio Enciso’s 69th-minute, long-range piledriver secured victory for the visitors, who outplayed Chelsea as Lampard rang the changes for a match taking place between his team’s home-and-away games against Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals.
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Lampard has taken charge of three games since coming in as interim manager following the firing of Graham Potter, and he’s lost all of them. First there was a 1-0 loss at Wolverhampton last weekend before a 2-0 defeat at Madrid on Wednesday.
This was Lampard’s first game at Stamford Bridge and Chelsea took the lead against the run of play, with Conor Gallagher’s shot from the edge of the area deflecting off Brighton defender Lewis Dunk and wrong-footing recalled goalkeeper Robert Sanchez in the 13th.
Danny Welbeck came on as a substitute for the injured striker Evan Ferguson and equalized in the 42nd, heading in from Pascal Gross’ right-wing cross.
Enciso, a 19-year-old Paraguayan forward, was another first-half substitute because of an injury to Joel Veltman and he scored for the second time this season when he drove forward and fired a rising shot into the top corner from a central position 30 meters out. Enciso was lifted onto the shoulders of his teammates as he celebrated in front of Brighton’s fans.
Brighton stayed in seventh place.
Chelsea, after a spending spree of $630 million over the last two transfer windows, is languishing in 11th place.
Fulham beat Everton
Fulham ended an alarming run of Premier League defeats by beating Everton 3-1 on Saturday as Marco Silva claimed a first win against his former employers to damage their attempt to avoid relegation.
Harrison Reed put the Cottagers ahead midway through the first half but Everton hit back through Dwight McNeil and seemed the likeliest to score again before halftime at Goodison Park.
But the momentum swung back toward Fulham when Harry Wilson put the visitors back ahead just after the break. Dan James sealed victory to snap Fulham’s sequence of five successive losses.
With Fulham in the ascendancy, Everton’s players became increasingly disjointed and were booed off at the full-time whistle after squandering the chance to put daylight between themselves and the Premier League relegation zone. Everton remains above the bottom three on goal difference alone.
This will be especially frustrating for Everton manager Sean Dyche, whose side have a much better record at home than away. There are no such worries for his opposite number Silva, who managed Everton from May 2018 to December 2019.
Fulham remained in 10th place but has now passed the 40-point barrier and this win could reignite its hopes of pushing for Europe next season.
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Wolves sink Brentford
Diego Costa’s first Premier League goal for six years helped fire Wolverhampton closer to survival on Saturday.
The striker inspired the hosts to a 2-0 win over Brentford to end his wait for a goal after his September arrival.
Hwang Hee-chan netted the second, with Wolves now seven points clear of the relegation zone with seven games left after successive league wins for just the second time this season.
Julen Lopetegui’s side edged toward safety and another barnstorming Costa display sparked memories of his bullying best at Chelsea.
Ninth-place Brentford’s European hopes continue to fade after a damaging defeat.
Wolves opened the scoring after 27 minutes. It was all down to Costa’s driving run from midfield as he charged forward to pick out Toti on the left. The striker continued into the box to collect Toti’s cross, evade Christian Norgaard and poke past David Raya from 12 meters for his first goal in English football since the 2017 FA Cup final.
Wolves wrapped up victory with 21 minutes left.
It was created by Matheus Nunes as the midfielder darted down the left and skipped between Rico Henry and Vitaly Janelt. His low cross was then blocked by Ethan Pinnock but it rolled straight into the path of Hwang to tap in.
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)