Chelsea grant permission to Lampard’s Derby to use loanees against parent club

Chelsea legend Frank Lampard has been granted permission to select two of his best players when he faces Chelsea next week in the 4th round of the League Cup at Stamford Bridge. Mason Mount and Fikayo Tomori, both on loan at Derby County from Chelsea, have today been granted permission to play by the parent club, against the parent club.

The official reason is to benefit their on-going development with “the experience of facing top-level opposition once more” at the cost of slightly decreasing Chelsea’s odds of winning — though the Blues will still be hugely favored to advance.

Unlike the Premier League, League Cup competition rules do not prevent loanees from playing against their parents clubs, but it’s not an automatic allowance either, requiring express written permission from the parent club.

For some reason, this took the better part of a month to arrive in this case, but at the end of the day, what matters is that both Mount and Tomori, who have played crucial roles for Derby this season already — including in the 3rd round victory over Manchester United at Old Trafford — will be eligible to play (and thus likely will play). While Tomori has played about 30 minutes of senior professional football at Stamford Bridge already (as a substitute in the final game of the 2015-16 season), Mount would be making his Bridge debut (the first of hopefully many more appearances).

The match will be played next Wednesday, on All Hallows’ Eve. It’s going to be a scary good time.