Chelsea striker Timo Werner has given his verdict about the way football is being played in the Premier League, especially the way the defenders mark.

Werner was caught offside more than any other player in Europe’s elite leagues last season. He was flagged 43 times for RB Leipzig and on Monday night we saw him caught twice inside the opening seven minutes for Chelsea. But when he times it right, those runs behind are terrifying for defenders and goalkeepers.

The 24-year-old was given the nickname ‘Turbo Timo’ earlier in his career for a very good reason — because he is rapid.

When Brighton gave the ball away in the 21st minute and Jorginho played a pass through, it looked slightly ahead of Werner. But Chelsea’s new £53million forward was on to it like a flash.

After the match, the Germany international said: “I’m really excited. It was a tough game; everyone said to me Premier League football is something different, and it was a hard game.

“We’re very happy to have won today. The game is totally different [in England]; in some situations there’s more space, and the strength of the defenders – I played against three massive defenders – is not something we have in Germany.

“I’m happy to be here.”

Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has rated the performances of some of his players in the victory over Brighton at Amex Stadium.

Jorginho’s first-half penalty was cancelled out by Leandro Trossard before a thunderbolt from Reece James and deflected Kurt Zouma effort wrapped up the three points.

But the the weast London claimed all the three points at stake in their Premier League opening game.

Lampard state that: “I thought we were OK. I liked the work ethic. I don’t want to pin us down to one system, I want us to be adaptable. We have a lot of attacking players, I want us to be fluid, I want that movement.

“We weren’t as fluid as we can be today but we will work on that.

“I liked Kai Havertz. It’s not a game where you come away with some vintage moments and there’s a lot on his shoulders but you saw glimpses of what he can do.

“I loved the way that Timo Werner pops up in different areas, he has a hunger to score goals and be ruthless. I am happy with Kepa, I saw confidence in him, he is here, he is our keeper”

On Reece James… “I’m asked that question a lot about players through system. The opportunities if they perform well are still there. I’ve got two right backs. The goal didn’t surprise me. I know Reece can shoot. It was so clean. He has that in him.”

On Ruben Loftus-Cheek… “Ruben has been out for a long time. His return was broken by the lockdown and restart. We’ve got injuries in forward areas.”

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Reece James has handed the Blues the lead with a wonderful strike on the 61st minute of the game.

Jorginho played a square pass to the Chelsea defence ace, 30 yards from goal. James’s first touch was excellent: it moved the ball away from Alzate and gave him the room to spank a spectacular drive into the top corner.

Brighton Mat Ryan had no chance and Chelsea are back in front.

Reports in Italy claim Real Madrid have stunned Barcelona by agreeing a deal worth €100m for Inter striker Lautaro Martinez.

The Argentina international had been a named Barca target for over a year, but the two clubs failed to come to an agreement on the transfer fee.

Now Italian site Sport Mediaset maintain Real Madrid have succeeded where the Blaugrana failed, diving in with an offer worth €100m cash.

In truth, according to Football Italia, it’d be closer to €50-60m plus Real Madrid wiping the slate clean on Achraf Hakimi, who made the move to San Siro for €40m this summer.

Inter would then use that money to bring in Antonio Conte’s first choice midfielder, N’Golo Kante, from Chelsea for €50m.

The same source even suggests Real Madrid have agreed personal terms with Lautaro Martinez, with a contract worth €8m per season.

That is €2m less than Barcelona had offered him, but still a vast improvement on the €5m proposed for a contract extension at Inter.

Bayer Leverkusen chief Rudi Voller claims Chelsea took advantage of the coronavirus crisis to sign Kai Havertz.

Chelsea sealed move for the Germany international after weeks of negotiation with the Bundesliga club, who were desperate to hold on to the highly-rated youngster.

But the west London club were equally determined to sign Havertz, and eventually paid £72m to get their man.

He told Bild: “[Chelsea] simply made good use of the coronavirus period.

“Next year it would have been much harder for Chelsea to get Kai. [Other interested teams] preferred to hold back because of the high transfer fee in this special and uncertain time.”

Tariq Lamptey meteoric rise has happened so fast that even he has been left stunned by it – as he gets set to face Chelsea.

The 19-year-old has been a revelation since joining Brighton from Chelsea’s reserves in January and last week earned his first England Under-21 cap.

Lamptey said: “It’s happened so fast, it’s unbelievable.

“Sometimes I just have to sit back and think, ‘Wow, this is a lot.

“But I’ve worked hard to get here and I’m grateful that I’ve got the opportunities that I’ve been getting.

“Hopefully it’s just the start and I can keep improving, building and getting better and better.”

The Brighton full-back added: “I’m very determined.

“Whoever I play against, you have to give them respect because they’re top quality players, but you also have to back yourself and have belief in yourself.

“I believe that I have got the ability to make the best of it and get the better of my man.

“That’s just my game. I’m not scared to take on players or who is ahead of me, it’s just another player that I have to try to get the better of.”

Leeds are plotting a permanent move for Chelsea youngster Conor Gallagher.

The midfielder, who impressed on loan at Charlton and Swansea last season, is expected to leave Stamford Bridge on loan again for 2020/21.

But the Daily Mail claim Leeds want to buy the 20-year-old outright as they have faith he is the perfect fit for Marcelo Bielsa’s team.

The Leeds manager reportedly wants to sign the midfielder before deadline day.

Chelsea are unlikely to sell Gallagher, however, as he is very highly rated by Blues boss Frank Lampard.

West Brom have also been linked while Crystal Palace wanted him before signing Michy Batshuayi on loan instead.

Frank Lampard has branded Jurgen Klopp’s criticism of Chelsea’s spending amusing, saying: “I was less annoyed with it, I found it more, slightly amusing.”

Chelsea have spent more than £200million on new recruits in a summer of Stamford Bridge rebuilding, but Klopp insisted Liverpool were different from “clubs owned by countries and oligarchs”.

Blues manager Lampard believes Klopp was as much defending Liverpool’s lack of summer signings as overlooking the Reds’ previous recruitment drives that have propelled the Anfield club back to the top.

“I was less annoyed with it, I found it more, slightly amusing, I would say,” said Lampard.

“Because I think when you talk about the owners of clubs, I don’t think it matters what line of business they come from, we’re talking about some very wealthy owners of clubs in the Premier League.

“I think with Liverpool’s story – and I referenced it a lot last year, Liverpool’s story – it’s a fantastic story of a club over four-and-a-half, five years that Jurgen Klopp’s been there that have managed to get recruitment right to a really high level.

“And the reality is probably, other than maybe Leicester, which is an incredible story, most clubs that win the Premier League in the modern day have recruited well and recruited at a high level money-wise. And you can go through the Liverpool players: Van Dijk, Alisson, Fabinho, Keita, Mane, Salah, incredible players, that came at a very high price.

“So Liverpool have done it, and they’ve done it over a period of time. What we’ve done is come off the back of a ban, probably tried to address the situation ourselves to help improve us.

“So I think it’s par for the course, and I think we all know that there’s no point in doing the maths too much because I think we know that Liverpool have spent at a high level, we know they have an incredible coach, we know they have incredible players.

“And the really smart thing Liverpool have done I think is believe in their coach, believe in their system for a number of years. So it’s a great story, but it’s story that has seen money spent on players. And this summer we’ve spent money on players, and now the hard work has to be done.”

Former Chelsea and Leicester City goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer fears N’Golo Kante’s energetic style of play may have finally taken its toll on the midfield dynamo.

The 29-year-old was limited to just 28 appearances for the Blues last season, with minor injuries keeping him sidelined after featuring in 53 matches during the previous campaign.

He told Goal: “I’m a massive fan of Kante, I think he’s a phenomenal player.

“His rise to stardom has been well documented and having been with him for that one season at Leicester, it was a joy to be there, watching and playing with him.

“I think it’s all just caught up with him physically because he’s a player that’s very mobile, does a lot of work all over the pitch, it’s taken its toll.”

“He’s played a lot of the time with little niggling injuries and he’s played through the pain barrier and I think last season it caught up with him a lot.

“He struggled to get any real consistency in terms of game time because of his injuries.

“I hope this season after the coronavirus break he has hopefully given his body time to recover and hopefully get things right physically.

“If he can do that he’ll be a massive asset for Chelsea. I hope they keep hold of him.”

Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti has heaped praise on the club’s three new signings after a 1-0 win at Spurs.

All three signings James Rodriguez, Allan and Abdoulaye Doucoure started. And Ancelotti insisted he’s not concerned about Rodriguez’s physicality.

“The players that can play football, they don’t need a lot of time to adapt. James knows what he has to do, Allan and [Abdoulaye] Doucoure the same,” he said after the game.

“I just said show your quality and they did. We had a good combination in midfield. Last season we had players with quality on the ball but you also have to play without the ball.

“James is not the fastest player in the world but he has a lot of quality. We have to use him to show his quality. He is not a winger, but he can come inside and receive the ball, he is very dangerous.

“I am not worried about the physicality. If I was worried about that I would sign Usain Bolt, not James.”

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