Frank Lampard backs counterpart Arteta before London derby; says inexperience talk rubbish

Ahead of the London derby against Arsenal, Chelsea head coach Frank Lampard said that he does not understand the talk of Mikel Arteta not being an ideal candidate to lead the North London club because of his lack of managerial experience. Lampard said that Areta was an intelligent player and has the experience of working under 'one of the greatest managers' in Pep Guardiola.

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London derby

Lampard said, "He’s worked with one of the greatest coaches, if not the greatest, for a couple of years at Man City and he was always an intelligent player so I don’t buy the whole inexperience thing. You don’t know until you take the chance with somebody, and who’s to say that a manager is better or worse because they’re in their first year or their 50th year of management? There are challenges daily and I’m sure he would have seen that at City but he would have observed it more and obviously been a big support for Guardiola. Now it’s his turn to make those decisions himself but from the years he’s had working with Guardiola at a huge club who have been successful, I think it puts him in great stead."

Lampard himself is new to management, having taken over as the coach at Derby County in 2018, and moving to Chelsea last summer.

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Lampard will also be facing David Luiz, his former team-mate. Lampard was asked about the defender's departure from Stamford Bridge in the summer and he said that there were no hard feelings between the two and that the decision made was purely a football-based decision.

"There are decisions you have to make and it was just a decision that was made. While I’m here, I’ll be making countless more of those in different ways so that’s just what it is. I don’t want to talk too much going into a game against a player who I respect and played with. If you look at our defenders and the emergence of [Fikayo] Tomori, that’s obviously been a big plus for us but I certainly wished David well when he left. He was part of a Champions League-winning team, he played with half a hamstring in that final and he got himself fit when he was under pressure with the injury so I will always respect that."

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