Lamps urges Mount on in friends reunited duel

MASON UP AGAINST PAL DECLAN

WEST HAM V CHELSEA

OLD mates Mason Mount and Declan Rice will finally get to play a game tonight that they are allowed to.

And Chelsea manager Frank Lampard expects Mount to treat the match at West Ham like a typically fiery London derby.

England pair Mount and Rice, who grew up together, were criticised in March for playing in an informal five-a-side game when the Chelsea man was supposed to be self-isolating after team-mate Callum Hudson-Odoi tested positive for coronavirus.

“I had the shortest-ever conversation with Mason,” said Lampard. “He said he got it wrong straight away and we moved on. No problem at all. Mason was very innocently playing football and he quickly held his hands up.

“Then I saw Mason in a couple of places getting compared to players who went out and partied, stayed out all night and did different things. I’m not wanting to angle in on that one but Mason was kicking a ball about and that’s so typical of him and how he lives his life.”

Lampard might have been in for a much longer conversation with his young midfield star after hauling him off as one of three changes at the end of a lethargic first half in the FA Cup win at Leicester on Sunday. But he was impressed that the 21-year-old Mount was able to shrug off the disappointment without making a fuss.

“Mason wouldn’t have been happy coming off at half-time, I know that because he’s a bit like myself,” said Lampard.

“It was certainly a moment that he should not be happy about, but then get straight back to it afterwards because he knows how much I trust him.” Certainly Lampard trusts Mount enough to put his friendship with West Ham’s Rice, 21, who is likely to be a Chelsea target in the summer, to one side for 90 minutes.

“They are two very good players,” said former Hammers midfielder Lampard. “But there is only one thing I will ask of Mason.

“He texts him tonight, he smiles at him in the tunnel or whatever it is but, if and when they go up against each other, he has to try to beat him in every individual battle that he possibly can.

“And sensing Declan Rice’s character, I am sensing they will both be like-minded on that one.”