toptop
Tammy
Abraham's double saw Chelsea beat Norwich 3-2 at Carrow Road to hand Frank
Lampard his first win in charge of the club.
It was Chelsea who opened the scoring after just three minutes through Abraham's
well-taken goal, only for the hosts to equalise only 156 seconds later as local
boy Todd Cantwell side-footed home from close range after some lovely build-up
play.
In what was an action-packed first half at a sun-drenched Carrow Road, however,
the visitors soon found themselves back in front thanks to Mason Mount's
composed finish (17).
Player ratings
Home Team: Krul (6), Aarons (6), Godfrey (7), Hanley (7), Lewis
(7), Trybull (6), Leitner (6), Stiepermann (6), Cantwell (7), Buendia (8), Pukki
(7)
Subs: Vrancic (6), McLean (6), Srbeny (6)
Away Team: Arrizabalaga (6), Emerson (7), Christensen (6),
Zouma (6), Azpilicueta (7), Jorginho (7), Kovacic (8), Barkley (7), Mount (8),
Pulisic (7), Abraham (9)
Subs: Willian (6), Giroud (6), Alonso (6)
Man of the match: Tammy Abraham
Norwich fought back, though, as the in-form Teemu Pukki made it five goals in
his first three Premier League appearances to level matters again on the
half-hour mark, only for Abraham to win it with his second goal midway through
the second half.
How Lampard won his first Blues match
The visitors - who lost Pedro in the warm-up, to be replaced by Ross Barkley -
made the perfect start in East Anglia as Cesar Azpilicueta got free to the right
byline, before finding the unmarked Abraham in the area.
And the striker showed great confidence to beat Tim Krul with an accurate finish
into the corner of the net, not that his and his team's celebrations lasted for
long as Norwich soon levelled.
Cantwell was strong in the box, before releasing Pukki down the inside left
channel, and from the Finland striker's low cross, there was Cantwell to
side-foot home from close range.
It was raining goals as back came Chelsea as Christian Pulisic's clever ball
found Mount in the box, with the young midfielder keeping his cool to work some
space with quick feet, before burying a shot past Krul for his second strike in
a week.
That was not the end of the first-half scoring, though, with the hosts back on
level terms on the half-hour mark after excellent play from Emiliano Buendia,
whose lovely through-ball picked out Pukki.
And the in-form Finn kept his cool to beat Kepa Arrizabalaga from an acute angle
as Norwich's famed recovery powers were once more there for all to see.
In the end, however, Chelsea's extra experience and class began to show, with
the visitors winning a ding-dong affair midway through the second half thanks to
that man Abraham.
Team news
Unsurprisingly, Norwich boss Daniel Farke named an unchanged line-up from the
side that beat Newcastle 3-1 at home last time out.
Chelsea made two changes from last Sunday's 1-1 draw with Leicester at Stamford
Bridge - N'Golo Kante missed out with an ankle injury, with Mateo Kovacic
replacing the Frenchman in midfield.And Tammy Abraham was given the nod in
attack, with Olivier Giroud dropping down to the bench.But, after Pedro went
down in the warm-up, Ross Barkley came into take his place in midfield.
The impressive Mateo Kovacic powered forward through midfield, before finding
his forward and despite having a lot of work to do, the England international
managed to find the target from the edge of the box with a low drive past a
flat-footed Krul.
Managers
Daniel Farke: "We came pretty close, I think it's small details that make the
difference. The draw at half-time was probably the right result.
"There were periods where Chelsea put us under pressure and dominated, but
sometimes you have to accept that good sides like Chelsea are going to do that
and dominate you. We hit the crossbar and created a few chances and it was a
close game.
"In general the officials were not crucial for the result, but my feeling was
that five minutes to add at the end was not acceptable. Chelsea are an
experienced team and took their time and had two cramps in the final few minutes
and pretended to be injured.
"I would also expect the same of my players, so I don't accuse them. But with
all the VAR and injuries please add the time on at the end, this is the
situation I was not happy with."
Lampard: "It was a tough test and Norwich will get a lot of points here because
they are a really good side and I thought
we played really well.
"It was hard here in these conditions and we controlled large parts of the game,
but we shouldn't have given two goals away and we need to be more clinical. If
we are more clinical then we take the game away from Norwich and don't have a
nervy last five or 10 minutes.
"But I thought there were some really good elements to our game and I'm pleased.
It's a first win as well so I'm really pleased."
Opta stats
Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has lost none of his three managerial meetings with
Norwich (W2 D1), winning both of his visits to Carrow Road (also 4-3 with Derby
in December 2018) - Mason Mount has been on the scoresheet in both such wins
Norwich have scored at least twice in 16 of their last 17 home league games,
scoring a total of 46 goals in this period. However, this was their first home
league defeat of 2019 (P12 W8 D3 L1)
Both Norwich and Chelsea had scored after just five minutes and 32 seconds, the
earliest time taken for both teams to find the net in a Premier League fixture
since November 2017, when Crystal Palace v Everton was at 1-1 after 5:25
Norwich forward Teemu Pukki (five goals) is the 10th player to score in each of
his first three Premier League appearances, while only Pavel Pogrebnyak also
scored as many as five in his first three in the competition.
What's next?
Norwich travel to Crawley in the Carabao Cup second round on Tuesday night,
before then taking on West Ham at the London Stadium four days later.
Meanwhile, Chelsea take on another newly promoted side, Sheffield United, at
Bramall Lane next Saturday afternoon.
Teams
Norwich City Krul, Aarons, Godfrey, Hanley (c), Lewis, Trybull
(Vrancic 81), Leitner (McLean 81), Stiepermann (Srbeny 81), Cantwell, Buendia,
Pukki
Subs Not Used Fahrmann, Byram, Klose, Tettey
Booked Stiepermann
Goals Cantwell 6, Pukki 30
Chelsea Kepa; Azpilicueta (c), Zouma, Christensen, Emerson,
Kovacic, Jorginho, Mount (Alonso 90+1), Barkley, Abraham (Giroud 75), Pulisic
(Willian 84)
Subs Not Used Caballero, Tomori, Batshuayi
Booked Jorginho
Goals Abraham 3, 68, Mount 17
Attendance 27,032
Referee Martin Atkinson