Frank Lampard guided Chelsea to an impressive 2-1 win at Vicarage Road – a fifth straight Premier League victory – and afterwards hailed an opposing player whose performance nearly robbed the Blues the result that propelled them up to third in the table.
The Blues have now won seven consecutive away games in all competitions – a club-record while in the top-flight – but Lampard reserved special praise for Watford goalkeeper Ben Foster who made eye-catching impacts at both ends of the pitch.
The England international made a string of saves to keep the scoreline down and nearly equalized late on with a fine header but for a brilliant Kepa save.
Salvada de Kepa a Foster en el último suspiro del partido. Ganó Chelsea. pic.twitter.com/CSFBDgVK8Z
— Iván Peralta (@ivanper_21) November 2, 2019
“We dominated the game, played some great football for big periods of it and created enough chances,' Lampard said according to quotes obtained by Soccernet.ng.
‘You have to give credit to Ben Foster because he made some great saves but we feel ourselves that there’s at least three or four goals in that game.
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“It (Kepa's save) was a brilliant save and we got what we deserved,” Lampard continued.
“Sometimes you need your goalkeeper to produce moments like that – that’s what they’re there for. Sometimes it can be a quiet afternoon and it certainly was for him today so I’m pleased for him. It’s great for a keeper’s confidence when those moments come.
‘Two goals is never enough to put a game to bed. We’ve felt that already this season and it’s been a bit of a story of our season at times, especially away from home, but that shouldn’t take away from how well we played.
Lampard however did not fail to appreciate the efforts of his players who had to dig deep to preserve their narrow lead at the end after dominating the first half with an ‘outstanding' performance.
“I enjoyed watching a lot of the play. For 25 minutes, it was outstanding and we controlled it, then we got a bit sloppy but again in the second half the link between Jorginho, Mateo Kovacic and Mason Mount a bit higher was really good,” the Chelsea boss added.
“They’re all comfortable on the ball, they have the ability to find a forward pass and break the line and Kovacic in particular drove from midfield a couple of times. I thought they were outstanding.’
‘It’s great to see Christian scoring a goal from four yards out. I love to see that because he could have decided not to go the extra mile and then that ball flashes across the face but nobody gets on the end of it.
“If he continues doing that sort of thing then the goals will rack up because there are a lot of goals to get in the six-yard box. I thought his general performance was top as well.
“I joked yesterday with Tammy that he’s on a barren patch having not scored for three games but he’s so hungry, he works hard, he wants to score goals.
“I thought the timing of the link between him and Jorginho for the goal was fantastic and then it’s a great finish, and the assist where the pace of the cross that he gets on it really makes it.’
“The players are working hard. The way we’re working off the ball, we have to put in a lot of leg work and I’ve got players who are putting in the work. They’re training the way they want to play.
“Maybe away from home teams open up against us slightly more. I don’t think today was one of those days but it’s happened in certain games, which then gives us the opportunity with the pace we’ve got in forward areas that we can counter-attack and create chances.
“Whereas at the Bridge, teams come and make it difficult for us to do that with as much freedom.’
