Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has heaped praise on young Blues defender James Reece.
James made his full Premier League debut for the club with Chelsea captain Cesar Azpilicueta getting a rest after starting 73 games for the club in the league in a row!
And James was brilliant as he not only kept Zaha shut but also helped in attack. Lampard was full of praise for the youngster.
Lampard said: “We deserved to win. I thought we were the better team in the first half, maybe let the tempo drop as the half went on. The message at half time was to lift that tempo and move the ball around quickly like we can and have been recently.
“The moment we did that we created a lot of chances so it’s a tough win but we kept a clean sheet which is something we’re very happy with.
“We could have scored more goals to make it more comfortable but a good win against a difficult team to play against.
“I believe in him [James] and the younger players. He’s training well. We obviously have Azpilicueta at right-back regularly but it was just the time to give Reece some minutes.
It gives me good options going forward, tough ones in terms of selection but that’s good for the games coming up.
“I thought he did everything against Zaha, who’s a real handful, defended well and joined the attack well. He looked like he had been playing at this level for a long time and he’ll get better.
“You see Billy Gilmour come on at the end. He’s a slightly younger age than the rest of them but he was probably our best player against Manchester United in the Carabao Cup so you never know until you give them a chance.
“It’s been a long time coming here where a batch of players are getting a chance and it’s just something that I and the staff felt when we were coming into the job that they were there and they deserve it.
“At the minute they’re not letting us down but we have to remember that it’s early days, really early days so can we sustain this form and get even better because I think there’s a lot of room for improvement.”
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