Frank Lampard faces one of his former employers on Monday when Chelsea host West Ham in a London derby at Stamford Bridge.
The Hammers are enjoying a stellar start to the Premier League campaign, sitting just one point and one place behind Lampard’s side in the standings in seventh spot heading into Monday’s game.
A win for Chelsea will give them a four-point cushion to their London rivals but a win for the Hammers will see them leapfrog the Blues in the table.
Lampard joined Chelsea as a player in 2001 from West Ham for £11million and went on to win three Premier League titles, four FA Cups, two League Cups, a Europa League title and also the big one, the Champions League, in west London.
West Ham are going well under David Moyes so far in 2020/21 having managed to avoid relegation last season after lockdown with an impressive end to the campaign, something they have managed to build on this season having lost only four of their opening 13 games under the Scot.
Moyes has built on a strength with set pieces in his squad as well which has seen them have a much better campaign than many observers had expected with Moyes side playing six of last season’s top eight in their first nine matches of the season.
“I think he's doing a great job,” Lampard said of Moyes’ turnaround on the opposite side of the capital.
“They have good players, but the way they are playing and the consistency to the levels they've got this season have been really impressive. I think he's an experienced and a very, very good manager who has got his message across to them.
“They are playing really well, the organisation of their team, the style that they play, it's very difficult to play against. They have threats on the counter-attack and they are very good at set-pieces, so they are playing really well and are clearly a well-managed team.”
The Hammers are monitoring the fitness of striker Michail Antonio ahead of the game with the striker having missed the last three matches with a hamstring injury.
Defenders Fabian Balbuena and Aaron Cresswell are both nursing knocks while winger Jarrod Bowen is also carrying an injury but the latter two both played in West Ham’s 1-1 draw with Crystal Palace in midweek.
