Chelsea manager Frank Lampard hits out at attacking players for wasting chances in Newcastle defeat

Frank Lampard

Frank Lampard believes a lack of cutting edge cost Chelsea in Saturday's 1-0 defeat by Newcastle.

The Blues wasted several chances at St James' Park before Isaac Hayden's late goal earned the hosts all three points.

And Lampard believes his side only have themselves to blame for coming unstuck in the northeast.

"It's football, you have to get your head around it very quickly. I'm not always massive on stats but the feel of the game was domination," the Chelsea boss Sky Sports.

"They hit the bar with a header, one of I think three headers they had in the game and they scored with one of them. Other than that, second half I don't remember them endangering our box, we were camped around their box and creating chances.

"We know we have problems at the top of the pitch, scoring goals. We don't get enough frontline goals if we want to bridge the gap and that's something we've seen a lot this season, especially at home. 

"Today was like a home game in how we performed on the pitch and if you don't score then you're always liable to a sucker punch and we got it.

"It's something we need to address, the instinctive nature to score the goal. We're working on it.

"We need to be clinical. We can't make any bones about it, it's a reality. We can't work anymore in training on finishing. You have to have that killer instinct in front of goal. We need to score more goals from front-line areas to get where we need to be."

Chelsea remain five points clear of the chasing pack in the race for the top four, although Manchester United can close the gap to two points with victory over Liverpool on Sunday.

Lampard's men return to action against Arsenal on Tuesday, before an FA Cup clash with Wolves next weekend.

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Greg Lea

Greg Lea is a freelance football journalist who's filled in wherever FourFourTwo needs him since 2014. He became a Crystal Palace fan after watching a 1-0 loss to Port Vale in 1998, and once got on the scoresheet in a primary school game against Wilfried Zaha's Whitehorse Manor (an own goal in an 8-0 defeat).