Chennaiyin FC are on a good run of form having won three games back-to-back, after an initial setback. Having defeated ATK 3-2 earlier this week at home, Chennai travel to the Mumbai Football Arena to meet hosts Mumbai City FC on Sunday in Hero Indian Super League 2017-18. A win will ensure Chennai regain the top spot in the points table.

Present at the pre-match press conference was Chennai’s head coach, John Gregory who was asked how he felt with Jeje Lalpekhlua getting back his goal-scoring touch in their previous encounter, as that was something weighing heavily on his team. “Jeje has done really well for both club and country, and the fact that he had not scored goals going into the fourth match was very unusual for him. Fortunately, other people had been scoring, which takes a lot of pressure off Jeje. That certainly helped Jeje to relax, and we just spoke to him and told him to carry on. He works exceptionally hard on the field but probably didn’t get the chances that he had in the past. But when you have goal-scoring quality, it will come eventually. You just have to keep believing in yourself. When we needed him the other night, he came up with the goods. I was delighted with all the players, but particularly with Jeje and his two goals,” he said.

The Englishman has a talented squad filled with youngsters at his disposal to choose from. When asked if that makes picking a starting XI tough, he replied, “Yes, it does. (Rene) Mihelic played in the first game for 45 minutes, and he has had to sit and watch since then. He came on the other night and contributed towards the winning goal. (Jaime) Gavilan has had to wait as well and so has Jude (Nworuh). He played a part in the win at Pune. Obviously, the Indian boys, I have more of them than the foreign boys. It has been difficult to leave out one or two of those. I left (Dhanpal) Ganesh out to start with, but he came in and did particularly well. There is Germanpreet (Singh) who hasn’t been in our starting line-up yet, and he is desperate to get on the pitch. So, I have been very fortunate to have got a good crop of Indian players and I am very pleased with them. I try to tell everybody to wait for their turn.”

Gregory also confirmed that their midfield lynchpin Raphael Augusto is back from injury and may feature in Sunday’s game. When asked how he evaluates Mumbai who has been quite a threat when playing at home, he concluded, “We expect a tough game everywhere. We saw NorthEast last night on the back of a great victory. I was expecting them to get at least a point last night (against Bengaluru FC) if not three, but they got beaten at home as you know. But, every game is difficult, and every game brings different problems for coaches and players. Trust me, there are no easy games, and I am very excited for the game against Mumbai tomorrow night. I saw the pitch, and I must say, I like the stadium. It is very compact, and I am sure that the fans who will be here will create a good atmosphere.”