EPL: Frank Lampard seeks to outwit Jose Mourinho as Leicester face Man City

Frank Lampard will lock horns with former boss Jose Mourinho in a Premier League London derby this weekend.

Tottenham manager Jose Mourinho, centre, celebrates with his players after their win against Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux. Picture: AP

Frank Lampard will lock horns with former boss Jose Mourinho in a Premier League London derby this weekend as second-placed Leicester seek to take advantage of Liverpool’s absence from action at Manchester City.

Elsewhere, out-of-form Arsenal travel to Everton and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer takes his Manchester United side to bottom club Watford.

League leaders Liverpool, who have a 10-point lead at the top of the table, are away at the Club World Cup in Qatar.

When Mourinho took over as Tottenham boss last month, his side were 12 points behind Lampard’s Chelsea and looked out of the running for the top four.

But Spurs will leapfrog their London rivals into fourth place in the Premier League if they come out on top on Sunday in a match pitting the grizzled Portuguese veteran against one of his key players during their time together at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea have stumbled in recent weeks, losing four of their past five Premier League matches, with the boss hinting at bringing in some attacking reinforcements in the January transfer window.

The mood is different at Spurs. Former player Ledley King said confidence was back and the top four was a realistic goal.

“(Mourinho) is a winner,” King told Sky Sports. “He’s won everything. From my experience if someone like that comes into your club you listen, you take everything on board and you try to soak up as much as you can.”

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Leicester must realistically beat Manchester City and Liverpool in their next two matches to stand any chance of winning a second Premier League title in five seasons.

A win for Brendan Rodgers’ high-flying team on Saturday at City would close the gap to Liverpool to seven points ahead of their summit meeting with the Premier League leaders on Boxing Day.

Defending champions City, on the other hand, can move to within one point of Leicester if they end the Foxes’ nine-match unbeaten league run.

Rodgers urged his side to keep their progress in perspective after their run of eight straight wins was ended by a draw with Norwich last week.

“We are a team that’s been developing over this last nine, 10 months from a mid-table position and now people are talking about challenging for titles,” Rodgers said.

“For us our feet are very firmly on the ground and the players have been absolutely amazing.”

AFP