Chelsea manager Frank Lampard believes Aston Villa's Jack Grealish is looking for fouls from which his side can then exploit set-pieces; the Blues beat Villa 2-1 on Wednesday evening.
Grealish has been one of the most influential players for Aston Villa in recent seasons and on their return to the Premier League he has continued to perform in the top tier as well.
The attacking midfielder scored at Old Trafford against Manchester United last weekend and Lampard admits that he was part of the discussions with his players ahead of Chelsea’s clash against Aston Villa on Wednesday night.
He admits that he told his players about Grealish’s penchant for drawing for fouls and feels he tricks opposing players into fouling him during games.
The Chelsea boss indicated that he did not want that to happen as Aston Villa are very good at set-pieces, but feels Grealish’s habits are a bit unfortunate.
Lampard said on Chelsea TV after the game: “I think when you come up against Jack Grealish you'd better get close to him, and that means you might foul him, and he's looking for fouls, unfortunately.
“That's the way he plays and it's dangerous because they've got good delivery, [John] McGinn similarly so.
“It was obviously part of my preparation and team-talk post-West Ham, pre-this game, we can't go through a game without fouls.
“I don't want to run around just trying to kick everybody, but we need to play with aggression and we didn't quite have that at the weekend.”
Chelsea returned to winning ways against Aston Villa and continue to sit in fourth place in the Premier League standings with a six-point advantage over fifth placed Wolves.
