The two have worked together closely for a month now but of course our caretaker manager has been well aware of the summer signing’s career before then. He has selected him in all but one of the six starting 11s he has so far named.

‘Raheem has had an incredible career,’ Lampard declares.

‘I’ve spent the last three years speaking to all the younger wingers that I have worked with and shown them Raheem Sterling arriving at the back post, or defensively the work he does. You cannot take away from him any of what he has done for Manchester City and for England.

• Sterling explains why tough experiences will make team stronger

• Check out the latest video from training

• Chelsea Women continue title chase

‘When you move club, and even when everyone outside says that moving from Man City to Chelsea cannot be hard work or a terrible situation, it does bring about changes in your life,’ he adds.

‘The performance of the team this season has not been great, so there can always be a lot of contributing factors to individual form. One thing I feel about Raheem when speaking to him is he is very honest in terms of himself.

‘He has got credit in the bank so he only needs to keep working and things around will maybe fall more into place. With Raheem he will show what he has shown in his career.’

Speaking more widely, Lampard believes there are understandable reasons for a lot of players’ form this season.

‘There’s the new younger players and players who maybe will be moving on,’ he lists. ‘There are a lot of those reasons and some of them I try to knock on the head because they can interfere, but other ones are actually quite real.

‘These players do care, they do want to be motivated and they do want to find a direction and be a success at Chelsea Football Club, but the process to get there is the one that is now in front of us.’