Mourinho, Lampard Salute Mikel

[Folami David]

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho and midfielder,Frank Lampard have hailed Super Eagles star, Mikel Obi's role in the Blues' 3-0 crushing of West Ham on Saturday.
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Mourinho, in his post match interview revealed the reason for playing Mikel in the holding midfield role and said the Nigerian played a great game. Mikel who was making his eight English Premier League appearance for the former champions played in the deep-lying role behind the duo of Ramires and Frank Lampard in midfield.
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"Mikel was in there for protection so he (Lampard) could go forward more. We knew they played a lot of long balls and of course Mikel is better than him in the air for the first long ball in front of the defenders.
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"After that Lampard felt more freedom to go and support in shooting areas. To be fair, when the team plays so well it's easier for the players to produce better individual performances," Mourinho revealed.
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Lampard agreed with Mourinho that Mikel gave him the freedom to rove and that accounted for him scoring twice on the night. "It was a very complete performance. We caused them loads of problems.
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"Obi in there is a great guarantee behind you. It certainly gives me a few more opportunities to get forward.
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"We knew exactly what we needed to do and when we do it like that we're going to win a lot more games than we don't win.
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The Blues had taken just one point from their previous two games but made no mistake against Sam Allardyce's side.
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A Lampard penalty and Oscar goal saw the visitors lead 2-0 at half-time before Lampard's strike with eight minutes to go sealed the win which lifts the Blues up to third in the Premier League table, four points behind leaders Arsenal.