Frank Lampard is excited to take on Jose Mourinho when Chelsea meet Tottenham Hotspur this weekend, per BBC Sport’s Football Focus via Metro.
What’s the word?
Spurs’ new boss will welcome his former midfielder to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this weekend as the two sides square off for the first time this season.
It is a massive game with huge implications; if the north London team win, they will climb into the top four at Chelsea’s expense.
And Lampard is excited to take on his former manager, with whom he won two Premier League titles.
He said: “I think it will be special. I think it will make a difference to me, I think it will make a difference to him.
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“We’re both professionals, we’re driven, and sometimes when you come across someone you worked with or a club that you worked with, it pushes you on that little bit more in the best possible way.
“And it’s Tottenham-Chelsea, that game has enough anyway. And then you have Jose Mourinho there. And he’s going to be desperate to beat us, let’s make no bones.”
Stamp his authority
Mourinho hasn’t really overseen a statement win at Spurs yet.
They have beaten West Ham United, Olympiacos, Bournemouth, Burnley and Wolves since his appointment but have also lost to Manchester United and Bayern Munich.
As the season progresses, then, one feels that Mourinho needs to stick his flag in the ground by overseeing a big win over a major rival.
This weekend is such an opportunity and Lampard is right; the Portuguese will surely be “desperate” to win.
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It would mark the definitive start of his reign and his era as manager and it would also be the master getting one over the apprentice.
Lampard, after all, has only been managing since 2018. A lesson can be taught this weekend.
Meanwhile, Spurs’ ideal scenario for Christian Eriksen’s exit from the club has been revealed.
