Mourinho: no tip off on Lampard's Chelsea team… yet
Chelsea's line-up and formation ahead of Sunday's game have not been leaked to Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho, he claims. Or, "not yet", at least.
José Mourinho says he has not yet been tipped off about the Chelsea team, having claimed he received some inside information ahead of Tottenham's previous Premier League meeting with their London rivals.
Spurs travelled to Stamford Bridge in February, their second tussle with the Blues since Mourinho had been appointed the previous November.
Chelsea beat Spurs 2-0 at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium a month into Mourinho's reign, though the Portuguese appeared to have the upper hand in the return meeting earlier this year.
Mourinho claimed he had been given an insight into Chelsea's formation and starting XI, though he did not identify his source.
However, Chelsea again emerged victorious, beating Spurs 2-1 thanks to goals from Olivier Giroud and Marcos Alonso.
Mourinho is yet to receive another tip-off, but he doubts it would make much difference even if he was told Frank Lampard's set-up for Sunday.
When asked in his pre-match news conference if he had managed to acquire any inside knowledge, Mourinho said: "Not yet – or probably not.
Mourinho: "Chelsea has an amazing squad"
"But with such an amazing squad…to play [Reece] James or [Cesar] Azpilicueta, or play [Ben] Chilwell, Alonso or Emerson [Palmieri], to play [Edouard] Mendy or play the most expensive goalkeeper in the history of the Premier League [Kepa Arrizabalaga]…
"Chelsea has an amazing squad, so I'm not even worried about who is going to play because they only have very good players."
The match will see Mourinho return to the club where he enjoyed two spells as manager, guiding them to eight trophies – including three Premier League crowns – since 2004.
But since his most recent spell with Chelsea he has managed two Premier League rivals in Manchester United and now Spurs, his relationship with Blues fans taking a hit as a result.
As such, the 57-year-old was particularly blunt when asked how he felt seeing Lampard and Jody Morris – both of whom played or worked under Mourinho at Stamford Bridge – steering the ship.
"It's another game for me, no problem at all," he responded.
Mourinho was without Hugo Lloris, Giovani Lo Celso and Steven Bergwijn for Thursday's 4-0 Europa League win over Ludogorets but believes all three have a chance of featuring at the weekend as Spurs look to remain top of the table – not that the manager is overly concerned about the league hierarchy for the moment.
"Maybe we don't go [stay] top of the table there [after the game], maybe Liverpool get a point or victory at Brighton, so maybe we don't go top, but going there with us top or Liverpool top doesn't change anything for us," Mourinho said.
"As I've been saying since the start of the season, we are always contenders to win the next match, nothing more than that, so we are going to be there, three possible results.
"We've been in football a long time, we know everything can happen. We go there, our objective is to win the game."