Following Coventry City's electric start to the 2025/26 Sky Bet Championship season, they found themselves 10 points clear of 2nd place Middlesbrough heading into December.
This led to a lot of people expecting the Sky Blues to ease to promotion back to the Premier League for the first time since 2000/01.
However, those who know about the Championship know this is never the way in such a long, physical season spreading across 46 games.
Following on from this, Lampard's side picked up just nine points from eight league games between the start of December and the 4th January.
The festive period was always going to be a tough run for the league leaders. Having a thin squad as well as injuries to key players such as Brandon Thomas-Asante in early November meant that it was not going to be plain sailing.
Ipswich managed to complete the double against the Sky Blues by beating them twice in just 23 days, obliterating them 3-0 and 2-0 home and away and they now sit just eight points behind with a game in hand.
Defeat to Birmingham at St Andrews after the busy period between Christmas and New Year was the last thing which Frank Lampard would have wanted and this led to the loan signings of Romain Esse and Yang Min-Gyeok.
After this recent blip in form, it has led to questions whether the Sky Blues will have enough to hold onto their top two spot with Middlesbrough and Ipswich closely chasing the leaders.
However, back to back victories over Leicester and Millwall this week was a statement from the league leaders that they mean business and will continue the battle for the title across the next 18 games.