Chelsea boss Frank Lampard was pleased to see Mason Mount play a crucial part in qualifying his team for the Champions League knockout phase, with a performance he believes answers many of the young midfielder's detractors.
The Blues secured passage to the last 16 with two games to spare on Tuesday with a tense 2-1 victory away to Rennes in Group E.
Callum Hudson-Odoi had fired his side into the lead 22 minutes in, only for the hosts to strike back towards the end through Sehrou Guirassy.
But just when it looked like Guirassy had earned his team a point, Olivier Giroud emerged to score the decisive goal deep into injury time, leaving his side assured of qualification alongside Sevilla.
Mount played a key role in Chelsea's opener with an inspired long pass that set up Hudson-Odoi for the opener, and Lampard backed his former charge at Derby County to keep shining at Stamford Bridge.
"I'm really pleased. With Mason there's been a lot of talk and any negative talk just needs to go away," the manager explained to BT Sport after the final whistle.
"I've been lucky enough to be closer to him and what he did at Derby last season has been outstanding.
"I'm not going to undermine the quality he has and when we have two No.8s he's got all the qualities - I think he can get more goals and assists. The pass for Callum Hudson Odoi's goal was top class. You saw Kai [Havertz] coming on too, we need to keep that competition.
"I actually don't speak to [Mount] too much. We have a good relationship, not as close as some think. He knows I'm here if he needs any guidance but it's the social media world, in the modern-day world we all have opinions and want different things from players.
"It should only be what I think, the players think and proper Chelsea fans think of him. The conversation just needs to move on, there's nothing to make of it."
Lampard added on Hudson-Odoi: "I'm happy. I knew he'd had a couple of good performances last week for [England] Under-21s and I know he wants more minutes.
"It's not cut and dry, he's still developing and he came off the back of a really bad injury.
"There's loads of great things about Callum and things he can improve, he's a big player for Chelsea and got a big future for Chelsea. His all-round performance was great tonight."
