‘It was never me against him’: Lampard and Gerrard renew rivalry from dugout

It is eight years since Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard called time on their international careers and still the debate over who was better for England goes on. “Especially in cabs in London, they love that conversation,” says Lampard. “Where do you go with that? And they’ve got big mouths those cabbies. It’s not going to stay between us!”

The Everton manager prefers discretion on that particular subject but there is no denying the competitive rivalry that existed between the two exceptional midfielders in their playing days will resurface at Villa Park on Saturday. Gerrard and Lampard confront each other for the first time as managers with both seeking their first points of the new Premier League season. Where once it was Liverpool versus Chelsea, or vying for position with England, it is Aston Villa versus Everton that now fuels the competition, and with added responsibility.

But Lampard insists: “The media portrayal wasn’t quite spot on, it was never really me against him. For a big part of our careers we didn’t see each other much. For England, yes, then you go back to your clubs and be competitive, and there’s just an undercurrent. That is all it was, and we both respected that. As we got a bit more mature we became that little bit closer, as you do, and then we both worked in the media and spent a bit of time together. We worked on the World Cup and Champions League final together [in 2018] and I was just about to go to Derby and he was getting into it at Rangers too, and we spoke about it, but not that much.

“Every job is different, every job is consuming and so we didn’t go into too much of it. I spoke to him when I came in here because I wanted to get his opinion about Nathan Patterson [the former Rangers