There are three types of spine in a Premier League squad – good, mediocre and telepathic. There can be no debate over the fact that John Terry and Frank Lampard, respectively the anchor and the catalyst in Chelsea’s ‘spine’ across more than a dozen years of trophy-laden campaigns, fall firmly into the latter category.
The partnership first became an entity back in 2001. It was around that time in which attaining Champions League football became essential, following the exploits of a late 1990s surge. A third-place finish in 1999, a year after triumph in the penultimate UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, saw the Blues become an ever-increasing draw for foreign talents.
In that respect, the new millennium was initially unkind to Chelsea, with successive finishes of sixth in 2000/01 and 2001/02 after mixed fortunes in the transfer market. Famously, the following campaign brought about a fourth-place finish, which many believe changed the entire course of Chelsea’s future, transforming it from a Leeds-style apocalypse to stratospherically bountiful.
It seems more than mere coincidence that the all-telling second full season of Lampard playing in front of Terry (2002/03) is the one that brought about said two-place improvement. That is an undeniable party line amongst Chelsea fans, but there is still a split of opinion over whether it was ‘Lamps’ or ‘JT’ who really made all the difference during the golden years of their brotherhood.
Lionheart Terry Honours the Badge with Shutout Record
John Terry’s virtues hardly require elaboration, and the Premier League has seen few equals to his lion-hearted, yet composed persona on the field. It is not just his relationship with Lampard that stands prominent in the memory, but also how he adapted to different partners in central defence, from Marcel Desailly, all the way through to David Luiz.
It was, however, with William Gallas that Terry truly became the great we have all since come to know. By 2004/05, Terry’s relationship with Gallas and Lampard was on the verge of ‘telepathic’ territory. Terry and Gallas were nigh-on impregnable, with the Chelsea defence as a whole conceding just 15 goals throughout 2004/05 – a massive reduction of exactly 50% on the previous campaign.
Chelsea, agonisingly, lost just once throughout the whole league campaign, rendering their attempts to emulate Arsenal’s unbeaten campaign of the previous year futile. Nonetheless, a Goals Against tally in the ’teens and a 95-point haul was a feat considered near-impossible under the 38-game format. With Lampard and Terry on the pitch, ‘impossible’ was a word without meaning.
Lampard Goes Above and Beyond in a Brave new Decade
Beyond 2004/05, the rest is history, and they have since always commanded the respect of the latest football markets. Under Jose Mourinho, 2006 saw Chelsea became the first successful title-defending club in five years, and in 2008 – albeit under different management – the Lampard/Terry axis played a major part in the club getting to within a won penalty shootout of a first-ever Champions League title.
In between the Champions League finals of 2008 and 2012, Chelsea memorably wrested the title back from Manchester United in 2010 by a single point, with a staggering goal difference of +71.
While Terry played an obvious part in constructing that favourable goal difference, Lampard chose well in making the 2009/10 campaign his most fruitful in front of goal. Under Carlo Ancelotti, Lampard was as devastating as any striker in the league during that campaign, notching 22 league goals in just 36 appearances, for an average of 0.61 goals-per-game.
Lampard additionally averaged exactly two goals per-league win in 2009/10, while almost half (ten) of his 22 league goals came from the penalty spot.
How #8’s Exploits Created a New Breed
Though Lampard’s 2009/10 league goals tally was augmented by penalties, scoring from open play with such regularity is highly impressive for an attacking midfielder. Ten years on, players such as Jack Grealish, James Maddison and even Chelsea’s own Mason Mount have notably emulated the same style at flashpoints in recent months.
While advanced midfielders with such scoring ability were nothing especially new even then, Lampard’s feats undoubtedly helped to maintain the relevance of such players in the modern Premier League.
Today it is not at all surprising to see not one, but potentially three attacking midfielders supporting a primary striker. This can work excellently with a well-gelled defence, or see many a plan crumble in minutes, which again underlines the former importance of Lampard sharing a pitch with Terry.
Overall, Lampard averaged 1.18 goals per-match in his entire Premier League career, of which over a third (34.5%) proved to be decisive winners – including his very first top-flight goal, as a West Ham rookie (against Barnsley) way back in August 1997.
Lampard’s league stats for Chelsea make for even better reading, with his goals-per-game average in blue alone rising to 1.23. His rate of scoring decisive winners in league matches for Chelsea is almost on par with that seen across his entire career (32.7%).
Standing proudly amongst those decisive winners is his unforgettable opener at Bolton in April 2005, which set Chelsea en-route to confirming a first league title in half a century.
Who Made the Greater Impact?
At a base level, in terms of providing the justification for Roman Abramovich making the level of investment he did, the nod must go to Terry.
Without needing to change the central defence, Abramovich was able to sanction the deals in the final third, which would see Chelsea go on to become one of English football’s defining superpowers in the mid 2000s.
The raw numbers also show how much Chelsea’s defence improved throughout the early 2000s as John Terry integrated into the first team picture.
In 2000/01, Chelsea conceded 45 goals, but in subsequent seasons (between 2001/02 and 2003/04 respectively) conceded 38, 38 (again) and then just 30, with a two-place jump between each season in that timespan.
To this day, Chelsea fans can but speculate exactly where the club would be now without Terry in the early 2000s squad. On the pitch, however, Lampard makes a solid case for being the more important member of the duo.
Even though 2004/05 largely saw Didier Drogba and Arjen Robben steal the show, Lampard’s ability from set pieces was a marvel, forcing opponents to drop deeper than ever, and commit panic-stricken errors and fouls leading to set-piece goals.
Lampard, with the coverage he provided across the midfield battleground, ultimately made Terry’s job infinitely easier thereafter.
Thus, perhaps the fairest conclusion would be to say that Terry had the greater impact in the pre and early Abramovich era – certainly everything up to the back end of 2004/05. Meanwhile, the second half of the 2000s, and everything up to Chelsea’s Champions League triumph of 2012, saw Lampard produce some of his most devastating football.
The Next Chapter…
Through Lampard and Terry’s respective experiences of Premier League management and coaching since August 2019, the two men remain inextricably linked. In years to come, they may easily find themselves in opposing technical areas, or even find themselves as manager and assistant at Stamford Bridge.
As such, this debate over who the better man truly is feels like one that is far from over.
