Nobody has made more appearances for Chelsea this season than Mason Mount and now the young midfielder is looking forward to our start in a new competition as Nottingham Forest come to Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup third round this afternoon.
Mount, who turns 21 next weekend, has admitted that the adaptation from previous campaigns in the Championship and Eredivisie has been challenging, mentally as much as physically, with the Christmas period bringing both mixed performances and results for the Blues in the Premier League.
‘There’s definitely both a mental and physical challenge,’ he claimed. ‘Every game is so big, everyone is watching and we have to step up – there’s so much pressure to perform so mentally it is tiring.
‘When you look back at the big games, we won both of them,’ he reflected on our four games in 11 days over the festive period, ‘but we’re disappointed because we probably should have won the home game [against Southampton] and beaten Brighton. We’ve had disappointing results after good performances so we need to look at that and do something to turn it around.’
On loan at Derby County last term, meetings with Forest contained more spice and significance given the rivalry between the Midlands sides. Mount acknowledges that the Rams contingent now back at the Bridge, including himself and Fikayo Tomori, will likely face some grief from the travelling Reds supporters.
He is expecting a tough test against the side currently fourth in the Championship, who will come to west London with the kind of fearless attitude that Derby showed when knocking Premier League opponents out of the domestic cup competitions last season.
‘I played the home game against them when I was at Derby and it was a massive rivalry,’ he continued. ‘I’m sure myself and Fikayo will get a bit of stick because their fans will remember that. I like to keep an eye on the Championship to see how Derby are doing and because I enjoyed it so much and learnt so much when I was playing there.
