Frank Lampard will toast his first win as Chelsea boss by spending the evening in front of a baby monitor after his young Blues downed Norwich.
Academy products Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount grabbed the goals in a thrilling 3-2 victory at Carrow Road – the Canaries twice coming from behind to draw level.
Abraham opened the scoring early on with his first senior goal for Chelsea before Todd Cantwell levelled from close range.
In-form Teemu Pukki then grabbed a second equaliser before half-time after Mount had struck.
Chelsea were more dominant in the second half and had a Kurt Zouma goal ruled out by VAR – with Abraham’s second settling an entertaining contest.
Lampard, whose third child was born last year, had not managed a win in his first three games in charge but has no grand plans to celebrate his maiden victory.
Asked if he had given himself a chance to celebrate, the former Chelsea midfielder replied: “If celebration means a couple of glasses of wine while watching the baby monitor this evening and watching Match of the Day, then that will be it. That’s the way life is these days!
“For me, I am happy, very happy with the result. We want to win games, I want to stay in contention.
“I didn’t want a slow start. We had a tough start and I have got to say I am happy with a lot of the performances.
“But you can’t shout that too loudly if you aren’t winning games. So it changes it for me, today. So I am very happy.
“It gives me more determination to work. I saw a lot of good things, things we can improve but a real good belief in the players, the way they played today. I am happy, but determined, I suppose.”
Following in famous footsteps… Tammy Abraham becomes the first Englishman to score a #PL brace for @ChelseaFC since a certain Frank Lampard in 2012#NORCHE pic.twitter.com/3dMDT1LAA8 — Premier League (@premierleague) August 24, 2019
Chelsea’s travelling support revelled in the fact their goals came from two players who have come up through the ranks at Stamford Bridge.
Abraham has spent plenty of time out on loan and excelled at Aston Villa in the Sky Bet Championship last season before returning to Chelsea and becoming Lampard’s first-choice striker.
Mount spent last year with Lampard at Derby and the manager was pleased to see both his proteges on the scoresheet.
“I think it’s the age-old story, fans like to see players that really feel the club,” he added.
“They are not necessarily local boys, not in the modern way of football because players are from all over the world.
“But I think they enjoy seeing something because if you come through the academy here you should feel the club, if you work daily and come through at a young age your absolute desire is to do that.”
Norwich, on the back of an impressive win over Newcastle last weekend, played their part – especially in the first half.
Daniel Farke’s side had not lost a home league game since Lampard prevailed with Derby in December and Pukki continued his fine start to the season with an assist for Cantwell and his fifth goal in three games.
💬 Todd Cantwell reaction: “It’s disappointing to not get anything from the game. We had really good spells against a world-class game.” #ncfc pic.twitter.com/LieIAVdkkL — Norwich City FC (@NorwichCityFC) August 24, 2019
Ben Godfrey almost rescued a point when he headed against the crossbar, with Farke ruing the defending for Abraham’s winner.
“We conceded early but I knew the lads would react to a setback,” said the Norwich boss. “I can trust my players. For me, a draw at half-time was a fair result. They had spells, we had spells.
“In the second half for the first 15 minutes they put a lot of pressure on us and were the better side. You have to expect this. Chelsea at this level will be able to dominate for a spell against Norwich.
“They score out of a counter when we are two against one. That was disappointing.”
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