Chelsea boss Frank Lampard delivers Billy Gilmour verdict after Everton masterclass
Frank Lampard heaped praise on rising star Billy Gilmour. The 18-year-old midfielder put in another masterful performance in the heart of Chelsea's midfield and showed he can more than compete in the Premier League.
And Lampard compared him to Jorginho for his ability to receive the ball all over the pitch.
Gilmour made his first Premier League start and earned the Man of the Match award from Sky Sports as Chelsea beat Everton 4-0 through goals from Mason Mount, Pedro, Willian and Olivier Giroud.
Before the match Roy Keane admitted his performance against Liverpool got him off his seat.
And Lampard thinks he can handle himself on the biggest stage.
"He [Gilmour] is receiving the ball in difficult places on the pitch," Lampard said. "You need confidence to do that.
"Jorginho has it and Billy has it. He showed that in the first half, but then played higher up the pitch. He can do both."
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On the overall performance, Lampard said: "Everything came together. You will always need your squad. We have had a lot of injuries, but the only way to tackle that is to trust in each other.
"When Billy is 18 and comes in it is not a problem. Today there was pure focus, but we can't get carried away.
"We go to Villa and we have to replicate that. We have struggled with inconsistencies. We have to work as we worked today to show that we can finish."
Chelsea strengthened their grip on fourth place and have begun to put pressure on Leicester in third.
They are now just two points behind Leicester after their two defeats in a row and opened up a five point gap over Wolves in fifth – although Manchester United could go fifth with a win over Manchester City.
"The whole attitude and focus of the team felt really strong today after Liverpool," Lampard said. "There was pure focus in the group.
"We have to focus on ourselves. It's in our hands, but when I said underdogs I was talking about big scheme. There is a long way to go."
Everton are now 12th ahead of the Merseyside derby next Monday and Carlo Ancelotti admits he was frustrated with the display.
"It's very disappointing," he said.
"This is the first time I was so sad for the performance of the team. Everything was wrong.
"We were not good defensively, lost a lot of duels, were not compact and did a lot of mistakes.
"It is a little bit strange. We did well against Manchester United and competed against Arsenal and Manchester City.
"It is really strange but we have to analyse this and try to do better."
Published at Sun, 08 Mar 2020 17:58:00 +0000
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