Apprentice ‘frank’ly outwitted the master

When the final whistle blew on Sunday, jubilant Chelsea boss Frank Lampard ran to the visiting fans to throw his coat into the crowd in celebration, as if his team’s 2-0 Premier League win over Tottenham Hotspur had been a cup final victory.

After a run of four defeats in five matches, the result was not only Lampard’s most significant league win in charge of Chelsea, against one of its biggest rivals. It was also a triumph of tactics over his former mentor Jose Mourinho who, as Chelsea manager 15 years ago, turned Lampard from a promising player into the club’s all-time top goal scorer.

Lampard’s Chelsea was in control from start to finish. Two first half goals by Willian, one of them a penalty, could have been followed by others. Spurs was taken by surprise by the visitor’s formation, which included three central defenders and the return of left wing-back Marcos Alonso to add attacking threat.

Mourinho said Lampard resorted to the same three-at-the-back system that was familiar to the team after former Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte used it to win the league title in the 2016-17 season. “It played in a system it is very comfortable with, a system where it played for two years with Conte,” said Mourinho.

Lampard bristled at the suggestion. “I’m not trying to clone anyone’s system,” he said. “The way that I play, the message that I give is different. The players took the plan on incredibly well as we all saw.” Lampard said he played three centre-backs to snuff out the threat from Spurs’ attackers, while the use of wing-backs helped to stretch the host’s compact defence.

“We had an element of protection in the way it worked but it also allowed us to have loads of control of the ball,” he stated. He also rejected Mourinho’s comment that Antonio Rudiger deserved “an Oscar” for his part in an incident that left Tottenham with 10 men for the last 30 minutes after Son Heung-min was sent off for raking his studs on the Chelsea defender’s midriff.

But Lampard stressed there was no bad feeling towards his former coach. “To go up against a manager I respect so much from my playing days and win obviously feels good,” said Lampard. “What Jose’s done in his career and did for me as a player, means I have respect forever for him. Even if we had anything on the line during the heat of the 90 minutes, which we didn’t, it wouldn’t change.”