William Gallas believes playing against your former team can be a double-edged sword.
The Frenchman famously left Chelsea in acrimonious circumstances to join the club’s fierce London rivals, Arsenal, where he became captain.
He then moved on for a shorter stint at Arsenal’s bitter enemies, Tottenham, becoming the first player to have represented each of the three sides.
As a result, he had plenty of opportunity to come up against his old employers, and speaking to Lord Ping , he explained how he had hampered his performances at times, but also provided extra motivation.
He said: “It’s always the same thing when you play against your old club. There is double motivation. You have to control yourself and your emotions. You need to find the right balance between not being too nervous and not being too relaxed.
“It’s not easy to do that sometimes. It happened to me (scoring a goal) when I played for Arsenal against Chelsea and also when I played for Tottenham (against Chelsea). It’s never easy to find the right balance when you’re playing your old club.
“Sometimes you can be too motivated. If you try too much, sometimes you don’t have a good game. It’s a little bit similar for defenders and strikers. As a defender, if you make a mistake, everybody will always say it’s because you couldn’t handle the pressure of playing your old club and it’s the same for a striker if you don’t score and miss two or three chances.”
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