It was a day of double delight for Chelsea as Tammy Abraham hands Frank Lampard his first EPL win.
Lampard oversaw his first Premier League victory, while Tammy Abraham repaid his manager’s faith by scoring his first two senior goals as they outscored Norwich City in an entertaining contest at Carrow Road.
This rollercoaster match had it first narrative twist in before Martin Atkinson had even blown his whistle to start proceedings, as Chelsea lost Pedro to a hamstring injury in the warm-up. Pedro was replaced by Ross Barkley in a line-up which Lampard wanted to be more clinical in front of goal.
Chelsea were, but they remained vulnerable at back, creating an entertaining spectacle for the fans. Less than a minute after the Chelsea boss sat back on the bench after celebrating Tammy Abraham’s first senior goal for the club, Lampard saw Kepa beaten as Todd Cantwell slid-home Pukki’s cross to equalise with just six minutes on the clock.
And that was, albeit against the run of play, when Norwich struck back.Cantwell, Emi Buendia and Pukki combined brilliantly as the Fin slotted past Kepa to score his fifth top-flight goal in three matches to put Norwich level at the break.
Chelsea’s tempo has noticeably dipped in previous weeks following the restart, but this week, their dominance of possession continued into the second half.
Christian Pulisic wasted an opportunity to restore Chelsea’s lead when he choose to shoot instead of squaring to Abraham, but it was the contentious decision not to refer to VAR minutes later that frustrated the visitors most.
Marco Stiepermann, who was somewhat fortunate to evade two bookings in the first half, appeared to catch Jorginho on the knee inside the penalty area. But nothing was given by referee Atkinson, and there was no VAR referral.
Minutes later, Chelsea would out themselves back in front, with Abraham scoring his second to repay Lampard’s faith in abundance.
A terrific touch took it past Godfrey, before Abraham drove the ball low into the bottom-left-corner of Krul’s goal. Chelsea thought they had extended their lead minutes later when Krul spilt the ball under pressure from substitute Oliver Giroud.
The referee awarded the goal, which was bundled home but Kurt Zouma, only for VAR to advise that Krul was fouled in the build-up. It was yet another contentious moment from the newly installed technology but, fortunately for Chelsea, not one which proved costly.
