Elliot Anderson forced forgetful Frank Lampard to remember him in record-breaking performance | OneFootball

“He’s a really, really good player. I’ve admired him from afar. I did at Nottingham Forest, and seeing him close-up – this is the first time seeing him in the flesh today – he’s very smart, very talented, a very good player, good brain,” said Frank Lampard of Elliot Anderson.

It is a revealing quote. Not necessarily for Lampard marking Anderson out as having “everything” a modern midfielder needs to thrive, especially at Manchester City. But for that small, throwaway line about it being the first time he had seen him play in person.

If that is indeed true, Todd Boehly might want a word. Lampard had a seat from the touchline as Anderson played 76 minutes against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in May 2023, even setting up an Anthony Gordon goal.

In fairness to Lampard, he would be deemed clinically insane if he hadn’t tried to entirely memory-hole his abysmal caretaker Blues reign towards the end of the 2022-23 season.

The Chelsea attack in that game was Conor Gallagher behind Raheem Sterling, Kai Havertz and Noni Madueke, for Christ’s sake.

But really it speaks more to the three-year transformation of Anderson from Newcastle academy graduate to record-setting Manchester City maestro.

It does already seem as though his nine-figure price tag might be quickly played into irrelevance, as with Declan Rice.

Manchester City had a midfield to rebuild, and £116million was simply the going rate for a Premier League-proven fulcrum who was as close to a guarantee of seamless success as possible.

The most obvious comparison is with Rodri, but watching Anderson cover so much ground as the sole holding midfielder, winning duels, recovering the ball and just generally providing a safety blanket to the forwards ahead of him and defenders behind, there were more than echoes of Fernandinho against Lampard’s visitors.

But the fundamental essence of Anderson remains: he completed more passes (146) than Coventry in their entirety (140), and roughly half of them were aggressively punched into a team-mate’s feet to progress the ball rapidly.

No player made more line-breaking passes (39), nor passes into the final third (21) than Anderson, who completed the most passes overall by an English midfielder in a Premier League game on record.

While Enzo Fernandez dominates the headlines, Anderson is the tireless and unassuming but crucial sub-editor of this new Manchester City side.

Lampard might even remember this encounter in a few years’ time.