Frank Lampard praised Mikel Arteta for Arsenal’s gameplan following Chelsea’s 2-1 victory at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday.
The Gunners were excellent in the opening 45 minutes and were ahead by half time through Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal in the 13th minute.
But Chelsea drastically improved in the second half and two late goals from Jorginho and Tammy Abraham handed the win for Lampard’s side.
Lampard, however, has credited Arteta for setting up Arsenal in a way which pinned back Chelsea’s three-man defence in the first half.
‘When we played as we did at Tottenham last week, I probably would have questioned my sanity if I had come to Arsenal and we played four at the back and it had gone that way in the first half-hour,’ said Lampard.
‘For me the main thing in the first half-hour was not the tactics, it was the spirit and the fight. Arsenal were quicker, we were lethargic, they were brave, we were nervous.
‘You say I was decisive but I could have made the change after 10 minutes, and not just Emerson coming off, any of the players could to change it slightly.
‘It is hard to convey a message with your voice on the sidelines with this sort of atmosphere so sometimes it has to be a gesture.
‘We changed and it got better.
‘Mikel Arteta is not silly. He saw us play at Tottenham and found a way to pin our five back.
‘We had three men marking one at the back and they had numbers in midfield and they won all the second balls, and that had to change.’
Lampard praised the response from his Chelsea players showed after his ‘firm’ half-time team talk.
‘You don’t want 11 quiet players who go let’s get on with it and just trot out the game,’ said the Chelsea manager.
‘I said my piece, it was pretty firm, you can’t come here and have nothing about you.
‘Win, lose or draw, I was not so bothered in terms of how I saw the second half coming. It was a case of can we show something here lads, because we have to.
‘We are Chelsea and we can’t roll up and not feel like the 3,000 fans who have travelled across London to watch the game.
‘And then the lads started talking and it was a bit aggressive, which is a good thing.
‘The response in the second half was everything I wanted. We have been rightly questioned recently.
‘Everton away would be a good one, a team that had life breathed into them by a new manager and we didn’t react and it was quiet after that game in the dressing room and I did not like that, and some of our home games recently were lacking something.’
