When Frank Lampard watched Chelsea vs Liverpool from a Stamford Bridge box on Tuesday evening, it was the first time he'd returned to the ground since being relieved of his duties in January 2021. At that moment he didn't know his next view of the pitch would be from a very different vantage point.
"I arranged to be at the game two weeks ago," he said. "I can imagine what it looked like but I can guarantee we had not started talking by then. I had not been back to Stamford Bridge for some time. Before that I had been working and then there was Covid and all these things.
"But for a club I have got this affiliation with, it is a feeling like home when I come here. I wanted to go back to a game, and of course we are here now. That was arranged two or three weeks ago."
