Lampard praises Aubameyang and admits Chelsea were just not good enough

Chelsea beat us in last years Europa League Final to stop us from regaining a place in the Champions League, but they couldn’t stop us getting European football this year. They couldn’t hold on to an early lead and were duly punished by That Man Aubameyang.

Lampard had nothing but praise for our main man after the game. He said in the Mail: ‘He scored two goals. One was the penalty which he earned, but it was frustrating because we had talked before the game how Arsenal play long balls behind you into those channels and yet we showed them in so easily.

‘He is a top class player and the second goal showed the speed and class of a player who wins games like this.’

Fair enough Frank, although he did think his team were a bit unlucky, but in the end they were simply not good enough to beat the Mighty Gunners!

‘We did not play well enough.” the Chelsea boss admitted. ‘We had a great start and had control of the game but at that point we started to get sloppy and not take that control and continue to move the ball quickly. We did not ram home our control, got slower not moving it so well and winning it back so quickly.

‘That changed the tone of the game and it was very hard to get it back after that.

‘But we did start the second half brighter. And if Christian goes through and scores instead of pulling his hamstring then… There were certainly circumstances in the game that conspired against us.

‘In terms of football we didn’t play well enough.’

At least there were no sour grapes after the game, unlike Pep in the semi-final, and Lampard took it on the chin like a man. Arteta got it right, and if he carries on this improvement into next season, hopefully we will be challenging for Chelsea’s place in the Top Four as well.

Onwards and upwards!