On Sunday, Chelsea beat Everton 1-2 at Goodison Park and moved within 4 points of Manchester City in 2nd place, with Chelsea still having a game in hand. As always, there were plenty of talking points to take away from this match. Here’s what we took away from this match:-

1) Lampard isn’t past it – Frank Lampard scored an all-important brace to help us come from behind and beat Everton 1-2. The 34-year old England international’s future at Stamford Bridge seems in doubt but yesterday he once again proved that he can still be an important player for Chelsea. While he may not be a regular starter in the near future, handing him a new 1-year contract wouldn’t be a bad move at all. It always helps to have an experienced war-horse in the squad. In this case, the experienced war-horse is a club legend who hasn’t lost his ability just yet.

2) Luiz isn’t a replacement for Mikel – Yesterday Luiz and Lampard started together in the middle of the park. While Luiz has impressed one and all with his displays in midfield so far, yesterday’s performance was one to forget for the Brazilian. He was caught out when Everton scored the opener and was generally all over the place, not what you need or expect from your defensive midfielder. If Everton had more bite in their attack, it would have cost us. Luckily Fellaini and Mirallas were unavailable for Everton yesterday.

3) New striker needed…. the sooner the better – Torres had an average day yesterday. He fluffed 3 good chances and altogether missed a 4th simply because of his poor touch. While he’s no longer shy of taking on the shot, his first touch and his willingness to make runs are a cause for concern. Chelsea were linked to Demba Ba in the middle of yesterdays match by Sky Sports News. It’s a known fact that we are woefully short on firepower up front, and with Sturridge likely to leave for Liverpool, a new striker must arrive as soon as possible.

4) A defensive approach does us no good – Ramires started the match yesterday, but not in the pivot. He was deployed on the right-wing to counter the threat posed by both Pienaar and Baines. While it’s good that we show our rivals some respect, the defensive mentality needs to be dropped as we tend to struggle to create chances. Defensive cover is necessary but what’s the point of it if we fail to create any clear-cut chances? Chelsea struggled for large parts of the first half and a lot of it was down to tactical confusion. The day’s of “parking the bus” are well behind us now and the sooner we drop our ultra-defensive tactics, the better.

Other talking points:-

5) We’re learning to win ugly…. that bodes well for the future.

6) When Hazard plays well, the team plays well. He struggled yesterday…. and we struggled.

7) Hope Cech recovers from his injury soon!