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Even amid Chelsea’s youth revolution, Mason Mount stands out. Third youngest in the first-team squad at 20 after Reece James, 19, and Callum Hudson-Odoi, 18. Second in the goalscoring charts with 4 after Tammy Abraham’s 9. And first among all youngsters in minutes — only Captain César Azpilicueta, goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, Vice-captain Jorginho, and perpetually available Kurt Zouma have played more.
His prominence had led initially to suggestions of favoritism from Frank Lampard, for whom he had played already last season at Derby County, but the Chelsea Academy graduates’s performances have put any such nonsense quickly to bed. Whether in midfield, on the wing, or behind the striker, Mount has been crucial to Chelsea’s play this season, combining confidence beyond his years with youthful enthusiasm key to Lampard’s aggressive gameplans. Not even Mason himself expected it to go this well!
“You always have to have that confidence in yourself. I probably did not think it would go this well at the start, to have four goals, so I am delighted but I have to say thanks to my team-mates and we have been working so hard.
“You can see every game how much it means to us to want to win and to work hard for the manager and the fans, so it has been good. We have such a strong squad and there is so much competition so you have always to stay at the top of your game and work hard every day in training if you want to get into the team.”
Having started every Premier League and Champions League match so far this season, Mount has witnessed first-hand Chelsea’s results, both good and bad. It didn’t start particularly well, especially on the scoreboard where Manchester United hung four on the visiting Blues at Old Trafford, but Lampard kept the faith and the team have responded very well since.
“We look back at that [Man United] game and to lose 4-0 is not good but we took a lot of positives from the game and we did not think it was a 4-0. We bounced back and now we are in fifth position and we just need to keep working hard and hopefully we can get the three points every game.
“We have been playing well and having that big result in the Champions League, that really helped us out. It has been going well away from home. There are little things we can work on, like conceding [against Southampton] to go 2-1 which made it a tough period of the game, so there are things we can work on but away from home we have been very good.”
-Mason Mount; source: Chelsea FC
The work never stops, though we do have to put it on hold for a little while now for the international break. But then we’re back at it, against Newcastle United at home, where we’ll be needing Mount and the rest of the team to continue on their current upwards trajectories.