Chelsea 0-2 Liverpool: 'A painful brush with reality for Frank Lampard and his team'
Frank Lampard's £200m summer spending spree designed to move Chelsea closer to Premier League champions Liverpool was never going to bring instant results - but Sunday's 2-0 home defeat was still a bruising, painful brush with reality.
Lampard's immediate concern will be the replacement of Chelsea's calamitous goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, who once more flouted his £71m price tag to such an extent that it might well have had owner Roman Abramovich demanding to know who was responsible for him signing that cheque.
The Blues are now close to completing the £20m purchase of Rennes keeper Eduoard Mendy, formalities possibly hastened by the manner in which Kepa's awful clearance gifted Sadio Mane his second goal in Liverpool's 2-0 win.
In the wider context, Chelsea and Lampard's negative approach came as a surprise, arguably exaggerating the already very large gulf in class between themselves and their visitors.
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