BUDDY HELL!
Lampard: Mount and Rice might be close pals... but that’s the besties way to fire up rivalry
FRANK LAMPARD is confident Mason Mount and best pal Declan Rice will be the best of enemies tomorrow night when Chelsea take on West Ham.
The pair were together in the Blues academy and they remain as thick as thieves.
But at Stamford Bridge both will be looking to pick the other’s pocket as they bid to get their respective sides back to winning ways.
“It’s healthy, it’s good,” said Lampard, when asked what it’s like ke to go up against someone with whom you’re close.
“The competitive nature will come out when you play against friends. Those personal battles will generate an e x t ra level of competition between Mason and Declan individually – and it’s fine, that’s how it should be.
“I don’t know Declan that well ll but they’re both young, hungry boys who want to do well for their team.”
Rice had to bounce back after being released from Chelsea’s academy and the fact he has gone on to become a Premier League player and England international is sometimes waved in the Blues’ faces.
But Lampard added: “The first thing for the academy is trying to produce players for the first team.
“The results we’ve had in the last couple of years are a great indication of the quality of that work for a long period. But when other players go down other paths, the club should also take some credit for producing them to go and play professional football.
“When you look over the Premier League and Championship there are lots of players who came through the Chelsea system, that’s the real positive for us.”
Chelsea’s fine start to the season had many observers talking them up as title contenders but back-toback defeats by Everton and
Wolves have set them back.
Lampard is experienced enough to know all teams will have a wobble during a campaign and that it’s up to him – and older heads such as Thiago Silva and Cesar Azpilicueta – to keep up the confidence in what is essentially still a young group.
Lampard said: “That’s of massive importance. It’s going to be a test of the players and a test of myself, because it’s my job first to pick the players up.
“What I took from the two games, Everton and Wolves, is about things we were doing really, really well after Leeds – you could say we were in great form but just dropped off a level in those two games and got punished.
“We came off that level a bit, so it’s not as if we were doing things terribly, we were just doing them at 70 per cent.
“The reality is we are not Liverpool of last year or Manchester City of the year before, where you just go out and win, win, win, win, win.”