It will come as no surprise to hear the man many consider to be our greatest ever player is in the Chelsea Team of 120. Frank Lampard redefined what a midfielder was capable of, becoming the club’s all-time top goalscorer, but there was so much more to his game. Here we revisit a pass he played that underpinned his creative capabilities, and typified his iconic link-up with Didier Drogba…
Think of Lampard in a Chelsea shirt and one thing quickly comes to mind: goals. During 13 years at Stamford Bridge, he netted 211 in all. It is an extraordinary figure for a midfielder, and testament to his consistency of performance and appearance. He scarcely ever missed a match through injury and rarely went more than a handful of games without getting on the scoresheet.
But to focus only on the goals Lampard scored would be to ignore the all-round qualities of one of the best midfielders of his generation. As well as putting a shift in defensively and using his tactical acumen to stifle opposition midfielders – think the Champions League final in Munich – Lampard was as adept at setting up goals as he was scoring them.
In 648 appearances for Chelsea, he registered a remarkable 146 assists. He finished his career with 102 Premier League assists, a tally bettered only by four players in the competition’s history: Ryan Giggs, Kevin De Bruyne, Cesc Fabregas, and Wayne Rooney. Lampard stands well clear of the likes of Steven Gerrard, David Silva and Mohamed Salah.
In our first Premier League title-winning campaign of 2004/05, Lampard racked up 18 assists to accompany his 13 goals. He also hit double figures for league assists in 2006/07, 2008/09, and 2009/10.
It was early in another season, 2007/08, that Lampard registered perhaps his very best assist for us. The setting was Stamford Bridge and with John Terry out injured, our No.8 captained the Blues. He himself had only recently returned from a rare injury of his own to take his place in our midfield.
The opponents were Sven Goran-Eriksson’s Manchester City, and the date was 27 October 2007, a few weeks into Avram Grant’s time in charge of Chelsea. City had only conceded seven goals in their opening ten league fixtures, but they were blown away by a free-flowing Blues performance that reignited our title credentials.
Early on, Lampard slipped in Essien to put us 1-0 up. Then on the half-hour, Lampard conjured up a pass of such pinpoint precision and aesthetic beauty it is worth watching time and again. Collecting a pass from Salomon Kalou in front of the dugouts at the Bridge, Lampard used the outside of his right boot to bend a through ball beyond the reach of the City defence and into the path of the galloping Didier Drogba. The Ivorian didn’t have to break stride, taking a touch before firing his shot through Joe Hart.
The trajectory and weight of Lampard’s pass had to be perfect if the ball was to both evade the retreating Micah Richards, and land in Drogba’s path. It was. Few players in world football would have even seen the pass was on, let alone executed it with such aplomb. Thank goodness Drogba found the net and it was not lost in the mists of time.
‘It had to be pinpoint to get round the two defenders because of the pace they've got,’ Lampard commented afterwards.
‘Another day it might have been cut out but once it got there, it was inevitable Didier would finish it. I was very happy with it. When you have good players making good runs around you, you have got to try to find them.’
Chelsea went on to win 6-0, Lampard registering a further assist. Before the game you would have got long odds on Chelsea netting six goals and Lampard not scoring at least one of them. Despite that, he was clearly the game’s outstanding player.
‘Frank Lampard was as good as we have seen him for some time,’ wrote _the Sunday Times’_ David Walsh. Grant was in agreement.
'In each game, Frank is better than the game before, and he has a great attitude as a player,' said our head coach.
'In the last three games we have seen fantastic assists he made. He is very important for us. We moved the ball very well, and he is a very clever player.'
The relationship between Lampard and Drogba was key to our success during that time.
In eight seasons together at Chelsea, Lampard and Drogba combined for 36 league goals, the Ivorian scoring two-thirds of them. Only Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min have a more prolific Premier League partnership, while Lampard memorably set up two Drogba FA Cup final-winning goals, against Manchester United in 2007 and Liverpool in 2012.
Of course, Lampard couldn’t be kept off the scoresheet for long. Four days after that thrashing of Man City, Chelsea beat Leicester 4-3 in a Carling Cup classic. Lampard netted a hat-trick, the second of five he would bag in his illustrious Chelsea career.
The goals never relented for Lampard at Chelsea but nor, should it be forgotten, did the assists and overall midfield play. His two-footedness, vision, and range and weight of pass meant he was as much an architect of goals as a scorer of them. It is one of several reasons why there is no worthier member of our Team of 120 than Super Frank Lampard.