Lampard backs misfiring Werner

Chelsea manager confident new signing will soon end goal drought

LONDON:

Chelsea’s new signing Timo Werner will start firing on all cylinders when he ends his goal drought, manager Frank Lampard said after seeing his side beat West Ham United 3-0 thanks to a Tammy Abraham double and a Thiago Silva header on Monday.

Germany forward Werner, who has scored eight goals in 20 games for Chelsea in all competitions since he joined them from Bundesliga side RB Leipzig in the close season, has failed to find the back of the net in his last eight starts.

“That’s the period Timo is in, it’s unfortunate but he’s getting in the positions - when one (goal) goes in it will be a run for him,” Lampard told the BBC.

“Tammy and Oli (Giroud) both bring different things, Tammy did his thing today and that’s what we needed.

“West Ham are a good team on good form, so many threats, I thought today would be a tough match and it proved to be so, even in the not beautiful moments we defended superbly - Thiago Silva did brilliantly with that.

“We dropped off slightly and it was important tonight we came back. There were loads of things for the team to show their character - we want more.”

Chelsea bounced back from two successive league defeats and closed in on the top four as they moved up to fifth in the standings one point behind fourth-placed Everton and six adrift of champions and leaders Liverpool.

West Ham boss David Moyes conceded his team, who stay 10th, were punished for lapses at both ends of the pitch.

“It was a harsh scoreline but we were not good enough in our box, having to defend a couple of times, we weren’t good enough in their box when we had the opportunities,” he said.

“The players played really well. This was our biggest test so far this season, for the majority of it we played very well but didn’t do enough where it matters.”