It hasn’t always been the case but right now it is other London teams who are grabbing the headlines, not that Frank Lampard is bothered either way.
With both Tottenham and Arsenal having parted company with their managers in the last fortnight, West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini under pressure and Chelsea enjoying relatively smooth progress with Lampard and his exciting young side, the spotlight has been shone elsewhere in the capital recently.
‘You have to stay very level headed with that stuff because it’s not quite your business,’ said Lampard. ‘I don’t celebrate managers being sacked or constant news about other teams, or where they are in the table.
‘With us, it’s not really calm at any time here! You’re working, it’s intense, it’s consuming, you want to get better all the time. When you shut your office door that when it’s probably calm, not quiet, but you’re always thinking of the next thing and that’s what should consume you, not what’s going on in London or elsewhere.’
Today the boss will be focused on the visit of another team from the capital, one he started his career at. These days he feels no strong emotions when facing West Ham, but, when he casts his mind back to his playing days, he does say the defeats he suffered against them stand out more than the victories.
‘It’s not just West Ham, when you lose a game against a London rival or a big team - and at Chelsea during my time we had players who felt for this club strongly - it should hurt. That’s the feeling you remember. It’s the same now.
‘It’s also your professional nature. Any game you might drop points you’d have that feeling, but the important thing, even more as a manager than a player, is you get over it.
‘You have a night to stew over the results, the reasons why, the decisions you made on the day, but the games come too thick and fast. It’s very important you wipe the slate clean yourself and learn those lessons quickly to prepare for the next one.’
Visit The 5th Stand app for the latest Ask Frank video