Not one to be knowingly outdone, Lampard sprinted through the inside left channel and in another instant threaded a delightful square pass to the onrushing Ballack, who had instinctively known when and where to make his run.
In the Chelsea dugout Jose Mourinho stood and applauded. It was — and still is — a relationship at an inchoate stage, but the Special One’s notion that two of Europe’s finest attacking, ball-playing midfielders can forge a formidable partnership despite their similarities is perhaps not as fanciful as it first seemed. Lampard even believes that he will not have to change his hitherto successful modus operandi.
“I don’t think I’ll have to accommodate my game,” he said, draining a glass of water delivered by his Spanish girlfriend, Elen Rives, after the launch of his autobiography, Totally Frank.
“From playing with Michael pre-season, the early signs are nice. He’s such a good player to play with because he’s so intelligent. He doesn’t hold on to the ball for the sake of it. He moves quickly, he looks for you in the right positions and he takes up good positions himself.
“The only thing Michael might affect slightly is that last year I was our top scorer — not that I had free rein to get in the box, sometimes I didn’t — but Michael is a goalscoring midfielder, so he’ll want to get in there too.
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“That might mean I don’t score quite as many goals, but I hope that’s not the case. I just don’t see a problem with us playing together at all. I’ve enjoyed the opening glimpses of what we can do, and we’re only going to get better.”
To some, the arrivals of Ballack and Andriy Shevchenko herald a galactico culture at Stamford Bridge, an era in which Roman Abramovich collects footballing superstars with the assiduity with which he collects super-yachts. Lampard is having none of it.
“We will not let that happen,” he said. “It begins with a manager who puts the team first, rather than the individual, but it continues with John Terry being captain and me being vice. Ballack and Shevchenko are stars because of what they’ve achieved, but they haven’t got superstar personalities. They’ve fitted straight into our way, and that’s what everyone does when they join this club.
“You can read too much into things: I don’t think we’ll ever go in the galactico direction; if we did, it wouldn’t be a good sign for Chelsea. We have to keep our spirit and our togetherness, so the manager wouldn’t buy a player who would disrupt the rest of the team.”
For all their success and a bottomless pit of gold, Chelsea have a backs-to-the-wall attitude, the sort of streetfighting underdog approach that brought Don Revie’s Leeds and Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest a mixture of grudging respect and frequent approbation.
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If the all-for-one approach sees Shevchenko being treated (theoretically) in an identical manner to Mikel John Obi or Geremi, it also works as an insurance policy for the rested, the benched and the out of favour. “Look,” said Lampard, “if we were to win every competition — and I’m not saying we will — there would be 70-odd games, and you’d have to be superhuman to play 90 minutes in every one.
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“Being dropped can also happen because we’ve got such a strong squad, and if your levels slip, you can be out of the team, but that’s been the situation for the past few years.
“On paper we’ve got more quality than we had before, so that makes it more competitive and means everybody has to perform. Recently we’ve had lots of players who aren’t playing. They’re not happy — and they shouldn’t be happy — but we’ve always kept everyone in the family. That situation has never affected us on the pitch or in the dressing room. It’s a fine balance, it’s not easy to do, but we’ve found a way to do it.”
What is benison for Chelsea inevitably turns out to be a curse on their peers. The recruitment of Ballack and Shevchenko has certainly not closed the gap between Chelsea and the rest. “It might not be the best thing for English football,” Lampard admitted. “But I want to win the Premiership as comfortably as we can. The first year we won it comfortably, and last year the points gap didn’t show how comfort able we were. This season you can see it being tighter than it was,” he insisted, as much to convince himself as anybody.
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“Liverpool have developed from last year. Manchester United are going to be strong, as are Arsenal on the back of what they did in the Champions League and the fact that Thierry Henry is staying. But if you win it by one point or 20, that doesn’t make any difference in history. I’ve got to be honest, I can’t see anyone else challenging, although Tottenham have grown a lot.”
If the abiding obsession at the top of the Chelsea tree is the Champions League, Lampard is still the boy from Romford, albeit the public-school-educated son of an England international (Frank Sr) and nephew of Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp.
“I don’t feel that,” he says. shrugging, almost sheepish at the confession. “I don’t know if it’s because I’m English and feel slightly different, but I grew up with the Premiership, week in, week out. That’s what I watched as a kid, and to say your team’s the best in England has always been my first and foremost thought.
“Of course the Champions League is a massive thing now. It’s something we’ve been close to but not quite close enough, and it’s getting to a level where it is up there with winning the league. But when we start a season I always think of the Premiership. Mind you, I’m not saying I don’t really want to win the Champions League.”
If Lampard has his eye on the footballing immortality that three successive Premierships will bring, his clockwork performances warrant a certain indulgence. Chelsea are hell-bent on indulging him, hence their pre-World Cup approach to renegotiate his contract, a mere three years before the 28-year-old’s current deal expires.
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“It’s up to Chelsea to come to me, and I wouldn’t ask for an escape clause. I’m content in myself and I’m content with Chelsea. Moving here was a pivotal career moment and I’m too happy and have too good a relationship with my team-mates, the fans and the club to be discontented.
“I’ve always been ambitious, and while certain things — such as the money that’s come in — have helped, a lot of it has been down to me, to what I’ve done and what I’ve worked hard to accomplish. But I’m part of the family now. I will always have a big, big place in my heart for Chelsea after what’s happened in the past few years. They will always be my team.”
On Wednesday a somewhat fortuitously deflected goal against gift-laden Greeks cemented Lampard’s pivotal post-Beckham role with his other team. There were those who suggested that this urbane natural diplomat might have made a more apposite England captain than the earthy Terry, who was fined £100 for a motoring offence on Friday.
Showing those diplomatic tightrope-walking skills, he disagreed once more: “I do and I don’t want it. Right now I’m just thinking, ‘Next cap, next cap, next cap’, but of course everyone wants to be England captain. If I said I didn’t, people would say, ‘Hang on, what are you talking about? Where’s your ambition?’ You can never rule it out, and I’d love to captain England, but I’m really happy for John. He was the right choice. He’s a fantastic captain for Chelsea and he’ll carry that over to England because it’s his nature to be a leader.
“When I finish my career, nothing would make me happier than John still being captain, because that would mean he’s been successful and therefore we’ve all been successful. That’s the way I want it to be.”
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Chelsea v Man City
Today, Sky Sports 1 3pm
Kick-off 4pm