Frank Lampard is accustomed to the idea of a midfielder wearing the No 8 shirt scoring goals in Chelsea games. It just used to be him, not Martin Odegaard. The chorus of “Super Frank” echoed around the stadium of the team of the league, as it long did. But never previously the Emirates Stadium, and not normally sung mockingly by the Arsenal fans. For Lampard, this was 90 minutes of torment, of schadenfreude. For years, as Didier Drogba destroyed a host of Arsenal centre-backs, Lampard was the support act to the Gunners’ nemesis, the vice-captain of Jose Mourinho’s team who dethroned Arsene Wenger’s Invincibles. Now Chelsea’s achievements in a season of spectacular, surreal incompetence include torching the managerial reputation of arguably their greatest player.
For Lampard, a 14th defeat in 15 games, interrupted by his sacking by Everton, came with a rarity – a Chelsea goal – but scant other consolation. No one escapes unscathed from this car crash of a campaign and the idea that Lampard had nothing to lose has taken a battering: he is more than half way into his temporary tenure and has a 100 percent record. A sixth match brought a sixth loss. The harrowing, humiliating scenario off an 11-game reign that does not even yield a draw, let alone a victory, remains.
