McGOLD-EN TOUCH
Sheff Utd 3 Chelsea 0: Lampard storms down tunnel after final whistle as Blues’ Champions League hopes take huge hit
FRANK LAMPARD stormed down the tunnel after Sheffield United embarrassed his Chelsea side - thanks to David McGoldrick.
Some things are worth the wait. McGoldrick would have loved to score the first Premier League goal of his career sooner.
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But if Sheffield United play proper European football for the first time in their history next season, no-one will care that the two strikes that set the Blades on the way to victory came in the veteran striker’s 26th appearance of his first campaign as a genuine top-flight player.
It was 16 summers ago that McGoldrick, then 16, signed for Premier League Southampton just as the Saints were about to embark on their plunge down to League One.
Before this season, he had been away from the richest league in the world for almost as long as United, who were relegated in 2007.
Now he and they are in a great position to secure qualification for the Europa League and give the fans their first continental away days since the Anglo-Italian Cup of 1994-5.
Striker partner Oli McBurnie grabbed a deserved second to consolidate the lead and a disappointing Chelsea team rarely looked like pulling one back before McGoldrick scored again.
Having paid dearly for some rank defending, Frank Lampard’s side discovered why only runaway winners Liverpool and Leicester have conceded fewer goals than Chris Wilder’s Blades.
And the final scoreline could have been more humbling for the visitors on an evening that will really set the alarm bells ringing at Stamford Bridge.
Blues fans will hope that relegated Norwich continue to provide all the suspense of shooting fish in a barrel when they visit Stamford Bridge on Tuesday.
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But with games at Anfield and then home to Wolves, themselves on the hunt for European football, to complete their league programme, they will know that Champions League football is far from guaranteed - especially if Manchester City’s alleged confidence that their ban will be overturned on Monday proves well-founded.
For all the plaudits that have come Lampard’s way this season, he has plenty to do in those three games and next Sunday’s FA Cup semi-final against a resurgent Manchester United.
In Wilder’s case, whatever happens now he has proved the doubters wrong.
His side have already accrued the most points for a promoted team since Ipswich came up and finished fifth in 2000/1.
The critics said Wilder’s innovative use of his back three as attacking options was all very well in the Championship but wouldn’t work in the oh-so-superior Premier League.
How wrong they were. The opening seconds were the Blades’ season in miniature.
The ball was worked into the Chelsea box and the furthest man forward was Jack O’Connell, the left-sided member of the centre back trio, whose cross had to be cut out urgently.
It set the tone for one of the more absorbing games of Project Restart.
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There were soon decent chances at both ends, but the Blades looked the sharper side.
That was epitomised in the build-up to McGoldrick’s long-awaited moment, when Sander Berge regained the ball from Mason Mount on the edge of the Chelsea penalty area and teed up George Baldock to cross it.
Kepa Arrizabalaga has come in for plenty of stick this season, much of it deserved.
But the Chelsea goalkeeper did brilliantly to keep out a McBurnie volley that deflected off both James and Ross Barkley, only for McGoldrick to tap home the rebound.
The Chelsea defending for the second goal was even worse.
Enda Stevens worked a simple one-two with Osborn and curled in a lovely delivery to where McBurnie was waiting, unmarked, to direct a fine header into the right-hand corner of Arrizabalaga’s net.
The visitors were enjoying lots of possession but could not break down the well-organised Blades, who quite legitimately put everyone behind the ball at times.
A fierce James shot from distance that forced Dean Henderson into a good low save was Chelsea's only meaningful effort.
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Lampard rolled the dice at half time, taking off Mount and Andreas Christensen and switching to a 3-4-3 shape.
His team continued to dominate possession but United stood firm and sometimes looked dangerous on the counter.
The home side were working like Trojans as Wilder roared out instructions in no-nonsense Anglo-Saxon that presumably led to TV presenters apologising to the teatime audience.
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Lampard’s next gambit was to throw on Olivier Giroud and the Frenchman sent a volley wide with his very first touch.
Chelsea skipper Cesar Azpilicueta saw his shot deflected behind for a corner which went all the way to the back post where Tammy Abraham arrived too late to divert it towards goal.
McGoldrick was showing as much energy as anyone in the rearguard action and then put the game beyond doubt.
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He fed Lys Mousset in the right channel and when Chelsea failed to clear the initial cross, there he was to smash the ball home.
McGoldrick still wasn’t finished, playing Mousset through on goal only for the Frenchman to clip his finish wide.
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It mattered not. You wait all your career to score a Premier League goal, then two come along at once.
Chances like the one McGoldrick and Sheffield United have now don’t come along very often. Few would begrudge them if they grab it with both hands.
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