It has been quite the season already for Chelsea - and particularly so for some of the Blues' younger players.
With the Blues unable to register new players over the summer due to a transfer ban, head coach Frank Lampard has put faith in some of the club's young players, such as Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori and Mason Mount.
He has been rewarded too with the trio standing out at different times this season so far, with Abraham currently the club's top scorer with nine goals, while Mount has scored four from midfield and Tomori has impressed in defence.
Mount and Tomori played alongside each other last year on loan at Derby County, where they worked alongside Lampard in his first year in management.
And Mount has spoken of what it means to him, the coaches and the fans for things to be going as well as they have done so far this season.
“It was such a big moment for the manager coming back. We can feel that goodwill from the fans, 100 per cent. It’s something they’ve been calling for for a long time, young English players coming through and doing well for the club," he said in an interview with the Telegraph .
“We can feel it on the pitch and we want to give that extra yard for the fans. We’ve been doing that so far and we need to keep that mentality throughout the whole season. People wrote us off at the beginning of the season and said we wouldn’t do well. We need to keep proving them wrong.”
Meanwhile, Mount said he is delighted to see his young team-mates excelling alongside him in the team, as he reflected on the journey that the young players have been on so far, and what is still to come for them and Chelsea.
“Especially for us two, working under him last season, knowing how he works, knowing how he wants to play, we probably had that little bit of an advantage coming into pre-season,” said Mount.
“But, yeah, it does help having an English manager knowing all the young English players coming through the academy, knowing what we are about and having that confidence in us to perform.
“You’ve got to have that self belief and you look at the boys now, there’s so many coming through and doing so well.
"It’s a bit surreal we are all coming through together and doing it. We are all working hard and, hopefully, we can keep doing well for many years to come.”
