Frank Lampard earned his first win as Chelsea manager at the fourth attempt, as Tammy Abraham's brace helped his side to a 3-2 win at Norwich in a breathless Premier League early kick-off.
It turned out to be the perfect afternoon for The Blues, as the Carrow Road contest also provided Chelsea with their first win of the season and Abraham's first goals for the club, as he started and finished the scoring.
Todd Cantwell and Teemu Pukki twice equalised for the hosts during an intense 45 minutes after Mason Mount had restored Chelsea's advantage with his second of the season.
But Chelsea were dominant after the break and another smart finish from Abraham proved enough for Lampard to claim his first three points.
He was the last manager to leave Carrow Road with a league win after his Derby side won a seven-goal thriller in December in the Sky Bet Championship last season.
💙 There is it! Frank Lampard has his first win as @ChelseaFC boss!
— Sporting Life Football (@SportingLifeFC) August 24, 2019
His side win 3-2 at Norwich as @tammyabraham bangs in his first two Chelsea goals, and what fine strikes there were too!
Congratulations to both pic.twitter.com/lWX7udtLW4
This victory was nearly as exhilarating as Abraham stepped up to deliver the goods for a Chelsea team which was already without the injured N'Golo Kante before Pedro suffered a hamstring issue in the warm-up.
Despite those setbacks, Chelsea were ahead from their first attack, Cesar Azpilicueta getting forward on the overlap and crossing to Abraham, who finished with aplomb.
The Canaries, despite having their feathers ruffled, were level just three minutes later as Cantwell exchanged passes with Pukki before tapping home the equaliser.
The visitors kept control of the contest and duly re-established their lead with a little over 15 minutes on the clock, Mount showing great composure to tuck away his second goal of the season.
Lampard's side could have taken control of the game soon after were it not for a fine save from Tim Krul, who reacted well to tip Andreas Christensen's diving header over his crossbar.
With attack on top, it was little surprise that Norwich got themselves back level before half-time, with Pukki again on the score sheet.
Cantwell's clever flick set Emi Buendia away and he rolled a perfect pass into the feet of Pukki, who converted from a tight angle, although Kepa Arrizabalaga should have done better in the Chelsea goal.
A clever short free-kick routine almost had Norwich ahead for the first time, but Kepa pushed clear Buendia's shot before holding Grant Hanley's effort from the rebound.
Chelsea were still enjoying more of the ball in dangerous areas but the sides went in level at the break.
Lampard's men dominated after the restart, all but camped in the Norwich half without really crafting a clear-cut opening to regain the lead.
They were denied a penalty just after the hour-mark, the video assistant referee siding with Martin Atkinson after he opted not to penalise Marco Stiepermann after a coming together with Azpilicueta.
Chelsea would eventually find their way through soon after, Mateo Kovacic sliding a pass into Abraham, who fired past two defenders and into Krul's net, the Norwich goalkeeper clearly unhappy at his failure to keep it out.
After fighting back in the first half, Norwich's energy appeared sapped and they could not muster a third equaliser of the afternoon to deny Lampard his first taste of victory
Highlights
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- Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has lost none of his three managerial meetings with Norwich (W2 D1), winning both of his visits to Carrow Road (also 4-3 with Derby in December 2018) – Mason Mount has been on the scoresheet in both such wins.
- Norwich have scored at least twice in 16 of their last 17 home league games, scoring a total of 46 goals in this period. However, this was their first home league defeat of 2019 (P12 W8 D3 L1)
- Both Norwich and Chelsea had scored after just five minutes and 32 seconds, the earliest time taken for both teams to find the net in a Premier League fixture since November 2017, when Crystal Palace v Everton was at 1-1 after 5:25.
- Chelsea striker Tammy Abraham has scored 28 league goals (including play-offs) since the start of last season, the most of any English player in the top two tiers of English football in that time.
- Aged 21 years and 326 days old, Tammy Abraham is the third youngest player to score a brace in the Premier League for Chelsea, after Mark Nicholls in January 1998 against Coventry (20y 225d) and Eddie Newton in December 1992 against Tottenham (20y 358d).
- Norwich forward Teemu Pukki (five goals) is the 10th player to score in each of his first three Premier League appearances, while only Pavel Pogrebnyak also scored as many as five in his first three in the competition.
- Chelsea had two English players aged 21 or under score in the same Premier League match (Tammy Abraham and Mason Mount) for the first time since 22nd August 1992, when Eddie Newton and Graham Stuart scored against Sheffield Wednesday.
- Norwich’s Todd Cantwell (one goal, two assists) has already been directly involved in as many Premier League goals in three games as he was in 24 Championship appearances last season.
- Since the start of last season, Norwich's league matches have seen a total of 164 goals scored (99 for, 65 against), more than any other side in the top four tiers of English football in this time (excluding play-offs).
- At 24 years, 208 days, Chelsea’s starting XI for this match was the youngest they fielded for a Premier League fixture since February 1994 against Oldham (24y 190d) – Chelsea have played 971 league matches between that game and today.
As it happened....
Our live blog had the whole game covered
