Frank Lampard signs off interim spell in charge of Chelsea with 1-1 draw with Newcastle

Frank Lampard signed off as Chelsea manager with a 1-1 draw against Newcastle in the Premier League on Sunday, leaving him without a home win during his underwhelming interim tenure.

It took Kieran Trippier's own-goal at Stamford Bridge to cancel out Newcastle winger Anthony Gordon’s early strike and spare Lampard the ignominy of a ninth defeat in his 11 games in charge.

Newcastle had already sealed its objective and qualified for the Champions League, but the draw dropped the visitors to fourth place below Manchester United. Somewhat embarrassingly, Chelsea finished in 12th place.

At the end of an awful season for Chelsea, there were at last flashes of a brighter future with Noni Madueke, Lewis Hall and substitute Carney Chukwuemeka — none of them older than 21 — the outstanding trio.

Newcastle started the brighter, with Allan Saint-Maximin running at Trevoh Chalobah and slipping the ball through to Aleksander Isak, whose low shot was well blocked by the legs of Kepa Arrizabalaga.

The opening goal was simple, but Chelsea made it so. A long ball out from the back was taken deftly on his left foot by Saint-Maximin, who looked up and found Matt Targett overlapping on the left. Cesar Azpilicueta and Chalobah seemed to leave the threat to one another to handle, and Targett had time to pick out Gordon, roaming free inside the six-yard box, to tap home unmarked.

Newcastle was playing with the confidence of a side about to record its best finish in 20 years and Isak nearly bent in a second minutes later, his arcing shot dropping just wide of Arrizabalaga’s left-hand post.

Chelsea’s equalizer was a mix of brilliance from Raheem Sterling and misfortune for Trippier. Sterling collected the ball from a quick free kick on the right of the penalty area and showed fine feet to slip inside and shoot left-footed low to the back post.

The effort looked to be going wide until a critical deflection off Trippier, who — with help from Fabian Schar on the goalline — bundled the ball awkwardly with his arm past Martin Dubravka.

Newcastle should have restored its lead late in the half when Gordon’s header deflected off Hall into the path of Miguel Almiron, whose effort ballooned high into the Matthew Harding Stand.

Chelsea was unable to find the killer ball in the final third and Madueke tried to take matters into his own hands with a decent run and shot coming on off the right, but the strike dropped straight into Dubravka’s arms. Almiron then found himself in space again inside the box and produced a stretching save from Arrizabalaga.

The final weeks of Chelsea’s campaign have largely been about looking for signs of promise among a squad whose confidence has been rocked, and Madueke — a January signing from PSV Eindhoven — gave a reason for optimism when he cut from the right touchline and went close with a rocket shot early in the second half.

Hall, at left back, has also enjoyed a breakthrough year and he went close with a shot that flew narrowly over after clever footwork to find space. It was his cutback 20 minutes from time that found Sterling free inside the box to shoot off target.

Sterling shot wide late on after Madueke ran the ball to the byline and crossed while at the other end, 17-year-old debutant Lewis Miley — on as a substitute — clipped the crossbar with a crisp drive from outside the box.