Chelsea coach, Frank Lampard has been very annoyed with the schedule handed to his team as his side have to face Aston Villa in a period of 48 hours timespan.
The timespan is so low that his side won’t have time to recover from the first match and prepare for the next one. This also implies that Lampard will not be able to put his strong XI irrespective of any kind of results from those matches and thereby the opposition will gain an added advantage over them.
The season has already congested games that have resulted in injuries to players with no to little recovery time. Lampard has lashed out by pointing out the unfairness to his side showing how Manchester United has three days between consecutive games while Spurs and Liverpool has four days each. He had to face Arsenal in an away game of Premier League fixture where he lost 3-1 while West ham will be waiting for them in 48 hours span.
The Chelsea manager has put the blame on the Premier League and broadcasters and accused them of not offering any fair playing terms to his players who are struggling to get back to fitness and go up the table.
‘It is counter-productive to the quality of the Premier League and it is a risk for players if they are going to play both games,’ he begins. ‘At the top end of elite sport, everybody knows that,’ he said as per Official Chelsea website.
‘The Aston Villa game is being broadcast live as they all are now and we play Arsenal on Boxing Day, that is there, and our game with Man City has now been pushed to the Sunday, so the schedule meant that we could have played Aston Villa on Tuesday. They wanted an extra day’s rest and so did we, but we got overruled by both the Premier League and the broadcasters.
‘This was bounced around, it got decided that we play twice in 48 hours when other teams that are challenging at the top of the Premier League have an extra day’s recovery. I don’t see how it is a fair playing field, I think it is wrong and it is not going to be the best for the players to play at their top level.
‘I can’t expect to get a high-energy and high-level performance out of them. Every club in the Premier League has sports scientists, and when we play now it is the second day after a game when we will be training as a second-day recovery, because it is not good for the players to even train at a high or medium level, let alone play 90 minutes.
‘Everybody club in the Premier League knows that, the Premier League knows that, so they have to inform the broadcasters. The broadcasters are looking for the best product.
It is right for the manager to complain about the injustice that they are facing and the board must look into it. This has surely taken a toll on the Blues as they have lost consecutive matches after an impressive winning streak.
