Frank Lampard admitted Chelsea lacked quality in their 1-1 draw at Brighton.
The Blues led courtesy of Cesar Azpilicueta’s simple early finish but failed to make the most of a dominant first-half display and Alireza Jahanbakhsh’s 84th-minute overhead kick earned the hosts a point during a much-improved second half.
“It is two points dropped for us because in the first half, if we’re ruthless then the game is out of sight,” Chelsea boss Lampard said at his post-match press conference.
“That’s not to say we had multiple chances, but we had control. We had opportunities to play people in that could score and to make decisions around the box to score.
“Today was a lack of quality on the ball. We had a situation in the first half where we knew the problem for them, we could find our full-backs easily and keep the ball easily but then we just decided not to keep doing those simple things.”
While Chelsea’s overall display was below par, Lampard praised N’Golo Kante, Antonio Rudiger and keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga for their performances.
He said: “There were actually some really standout performances, particularly Kante, particularly Kepa and I think Toni Rudiger. But in general we lost too many balls.”