Mason Mount reaches Chelsea milestone in Arsenal thrashing
Mason Mount has entered his name into Chelsea's history books with his involvement in Chelsea's 4-2 loss to Arsenal on Wednesday night.
Mount is now the fourth youngest Chelsea player to play 100 Premier League games for the club since stats platform Opta started keeping records.
At 23 years 100 days old, the young Englishman is behind former Trabzonspor manager Eddie Newton, who played for Chelsea between 1990 and 1999, former captain John Terry who played for Chelsea between 1998 and 2017, and ex-Nigeria international John Mikel Obi who played for Chelsea between 2006 and 2017.
Since his debut under Frank Lampard, Mount has been a staple in the Chelsea side of the past few years. Before then, he had gone to gain some senior team experience at Vitesse Arnhem in the Eredivisie and Derby County in the Championship.
He came back in Lampard's stint as manager after playing under the former Chelsea midfielder at Derby, and immediately fit into the side. He has also been compared to Lampard and his numbers for Chelsea since then have started to look similar.
This season, Mount is the Blues top scorer and assister in the Premier League with 10 goals and nine assists - the most recent one coming against Arsenal for Cesar Azpilicueta's equaliser.
He has now racked up a total of 154 appearances across all competitions and has scored 29 goals. Per his latest contract signed in 2019, the England international is committed to his boyhood club until 2024.
Tuchel reacts to Arsenal loss
Mount's performance was not enough to save his side as they fell at home to Arsenal, who came into the game on the back of three straight defeats in the Premier League.
Chelsea, meanwhile, had just made it into the FA Cup final - their sixth final under Tuchel and third straight FA Cup final. It was a game expected to go Chelsea's way, but a slew of errors led to the Gunners capitalising.
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was unhappy with the errors committed by his team and he made it known in his post match comments. "It was a totally wild and open game in the first half," he said to Chelsea media. "We came back twice after a good start but then we scored another two in the second half but unfortunately on the wrong side.
"It’s a level and amount of mistakes in consecutive games here at home that’s impossible on this kind of level. You don’t see it but we are doing them at the moment and you cannot win football games like this."
One notable absence from the side was Antonio Rudiger, whose contract runs up in June and could be leaving Stamford Bridge for free. Tuchel was asked if the club missed the German to which he replied, "We conceded seven goals with Toni against Brentford and Real Madrid so it’s not about individual players.
"It’s about the defensive performance as a team. You need to have the tactics right, which is doubtful if I had this right, and you need the team selection right, which is also doubtful if I had this right.
"Then it’s a game for the players. They get the full praise when they do it like they did in the last three matches so they have to face reality that it’s simply impossible to win matches like this if you make this amount of mistakes of this calibre
"I don’t see it in any other matches but I see it now in consecutive matches and it has to stop otherwise we are in deep trouble."
Chelsea sit comfortably in third place, five points clear of Tottenham Hotspur in fourth and Arsenal in fifth. They will be hoping now to end the season with a trophy after losing the Carabao Cup final to Liverpool, who they will once again face in the FA Cup final later this month.
Football Ant: The world's best football tipsters community, had a lot of winning tips everyday. Join now and gain the most reliable football tipsters and help you make money from betting.