Charlie Nicholas was full of praise for Frank Lampard after his four goals inspired Chelsea to a 7-1 rout of Aston Villa.
The England midfielder's quartet - two of which came from the penalty spot - will make the headlines but Nicholas, watching the game in the Soccer Saturday studio, insists Lampard's all-round display was excellent and helped Chelsea turn a potentially tricky match into a canter.
"Even at half-time when they (Chelsea) were 2-1 up, there was a lot of tension in the air. They didn't play brilliantly in the first half, Villa didn't do a lot wrong and if anything, I thought Villa were the slightly better team," Nicholas told Soccer Saturday.
"But Lampard dragged them out of the situation, and now that Ballack is not in there beside him you can see the freedom he's got.
"We spoke earlier about relieving the free space for people like Steven Gerrard, Lampard's the same type of intelligent footballer. He can see space, he works off people when they leave it for him and he's quick to pick it up.
"And I know he's got four goals today but his all-round performance, he was the guy that took them to the next level."
The Blues only led 2-1 at the interval and seemed set for a thorough test in the second period, but they ended up making light work of Villa and Nicholas says a large part of that was down to two-goal winger Florent Malouda.
"You did think that Chelsea might start to rock a little bit. The full-backs are still a problem, Peter Cech's back in goal but you can see he's needing a couple of games to get going.
"But when the second half started, Villa completely collapsed and Chelsea were ruthless.
"Malouda looks like a man refreshed. He's enjoying the system he works in, he's scoring a few goals but he's taking part in the game.
"He's not just staying rigid wide left, he's getting inside, he's scoring goals, he's looking the complete player again and he's bang in form.
"It's a big statement but of course next up is Manchester United away!" said Nicholas.
Europe-chasing Villa can get swift revenge over Chelsea in the sides' upcoming FA Cup semi-final, but Nicholas thinks that following the crushing defeat at Stamford Bridge, Martin O'Neill's men could embark upon a poor run.
"It just happens sometimes in football that over 45 minutes, things don't go right and the heads go down. And maybe there is that bit of mental fatigue where they just submit and accept it, but it was dismal and the toughest thing for Martin will be to pick them up."
"The Villa fans like a moan and a groan and I think they're away again next week so they can get it out of their system, but this will take a lot of coming back from," he added.
The England midfielder's quartet - two of which came from the penalty spot - will make the headlines but Nicholas, watching the game in the Soccer Saturday studio, insists Lampard's all-round display was excellent and helped Chelsea turn a potentially tricky match into a canter.
"Even at half-time when they (Chelsea) were 2-1 up, there was a lot of tension in the air. They didn't play brilliantly in the first half, Villa didn't do a lot wrong and if anything, I thought Villa were the slightly better team," Nicholas told Soccer Saturday.
"But Lampard dragged them out of the situation, and now that Ballack is not in there beside him you can see the freedom he's got.
"We spoke earlier about relieving the free space for people like Steven Gerrard, Lampard's the same type of intelligent footballer. He can see space, he works off people when they leave it for him and he's quick to pick it up.
"And I know he's got four goals today but his all-round performance, he was the guy that took them to the next level."
The Blues only led 2-1 at the interval and seemed set for a thorough test in the second period, but they ended up making light work of Villa and Nicholas says a large part of that was down to two-goal winger Florent Malouda.
"You did think that Chelsea might start to rock a little bit. The full-backs are still a problem, Peter Cech's back in goal but you can see he's needing a couple of games to get going.
"But when the second half started, Villa completely collapsed and Chelsea were ruthless.
"Malouda looks like a man refreshed. He's enjoying the system he works in, he's scoring a few goals but he's taking part in the game.
"He's not just staying rigid wide left, he's getting inside, he's scoring goals, he's looking the complete player again and he's bang in form.
"It's a big statement but of course next up is Manchester United away!" said Nicholas.
Europe-chasing Villa can get swift revenge over Chelsea in the sides' upcoming FA Cup semi-final, but Nicholas thinks that following the crushing defeat at Stamford Bridge, Martin O'Neill's men could embark upon a poor run.
"It just happens sometimes in football that over 45 minutes, things don't go right and the heads go down. And maybe there is that bit of mental fatigue where they just submit and accept it, but it was dismal and the toughest thing for Martin will be to pick them up."
"The Villa fans like a moan and a groan and I think they're away again next week so they can get it out of their system, but this will take a lot of coming back from," he added.
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