Mason Mount believes the Chelsea team are headed in the right direction following Saturday’s draw with Liverpool and is excited by what the future holds for the club after greeting several new members of the squad recently.
The Blues drew 0-0 with Liverpool in the Premier League at Anfield on Saturday, making it four points from our last two matches, following last week’s home win over Crystal Palace.
With back-to-back positive results in the bag and a promising away performance against Liverpool, after a run that had seen us lose five of our previous six games on the road in all competitions, Mount departed the North-West in an optimistic mood.
‘I think if you compare it to the recent form of our away games, it was an improved away performance,’ said our No19. ‘We played good football, we could have scored a few, so I think from where we’ve been recently this was a step in the right direction. It was a positive game for us and we’ll learn a lot from it as well.'
More than just a good result away at Liverpool, though, Mount is hopeful those two games against the Reds and Palace represent a positive trend and a continued improvement by the Blues, which can lead to us gaining some momentum moving forward.
‘I think obviously from the last game, having a win and getting that three points, confidence-wise it gives you a massive boost.
‘We knew going to Anfield it’s a difficult place to go, one of the toughest places in the world to play, and we knew we had to be at the top of our game. I think for the majority of the game we were.
‘Obviously a few times you’re going to be under the pressure. Like the second half, at the beginning, we felt under pressure, but you have to deal with that and I think we’re confident in the way we wanted to play. As I said, it was a step in the right direction.’
However, despite being pleased with our performance against Liverpool, the 24-year-old is under no illusions that the hard work of turning the corner is over and acknowledges this is just the first step back to where he feels the club belongs.
‘We want to continue to keep getting better, that’s the goal for us. We don’t want to be in mid-table, we want to be at the top,’ continued Mount.
‘I know that it’s been tough recently, but we’ll get through it and we’ll come out the other end and be even stronger for this moment. So we need to keep it up.’
Another reason for optimism is the boost the squad has received from it’s newest members, with Benoit Badiashile and debutant Mykhailo Mudryk both performing admirably against Liverpool, and Mount revealed he is pleased with the senior role he is taking on in helping the new arrivals settle into the team.
‘As the years start to go on you start to have a different role and for me, now, this is my fourth year. So when the new players come in, it’s up to me to go and help them and make them feel welcome. Even though I am still young, I’m one of the more experienced ones in the group.
‘So it’s just making them feel welcome, making them feel confident. You can see that when they come on the pitch, like Mudryk on Saturday. He’s very confident and wants to show what he can do, along with the other players that we’ve got. So it’s exciting times.’
With nearly two weeks to work on the training pitch before our next fixture, Blues new and old will be confident our return to form can continue when we host Fulham at Stamford Bridge in the Premier League on Friday 3 February.