Chelsea boss Frank Lampard has claimed that he understood Eric Dier's "thought process" following the incident that overshadowed Tottenham's FA Cup defeat against Norwich City.
Losing on penalties after drawing 1-1 after extra time, the Spurs player made his way into the stands on his way back to the tunnel to confront a fan who had gotten into an altercation with his younger brother.
A number of videos emerged on social media of the 26-year-old making his way over the seats and the FA are currently investigation what exactly happened.
Lampard has revealed that he agreed with Jose Mourinho's post-match comments about the incident and he explained that it was a "natural reaction" from the player to stick up for a family member.
"I thought it was a pretty natural reaction from Eric Dier, I think you if you asked the man or woman in the street, if one of your family members needed protection, your natural reaction would be to go there," said the Chelsea boss.
"Because we are in the sport that we are in, I thought Jose Mourinho said it pretty well afterwards, you are not supposed not, not allowed to as such, but when you talk about natural reactions, I understand it, particularly with a family member.
"I didn’t see anything go beyond slightly heated, which is good thing, so we will see how it is dealt with, but I think it should be understood that if Eric Dier saw his brother in a situation, then I understand his thought process."
Lampard was no stranger to receiving abuse during his own playing career after moving across the capital to join Chelsea from West Ham in 2001.
But has the abuse got worse in recent years?
"In the stadiums? No," he added. "I think its what it was, I took some abuse over the years, I have seen teammates take abuse, I know some of my family members and friends that have been in earshot of abuse, so I don’t think it has changed."
Given the barrage of abuse that some players have to deal with over the course of 90 minutes, Lampard was then asked if he came close to snapping himself.
"No don’t think so, I think players should be given a lot of credit sometimes that they hold themselves in certain moments, I think they could be," explained the Chelsea boss.
"We talk about certain types of hate in the game, and we analyse them, and then other types of hate seemingly are OK to say something to you or about your family.
"I have heard all of that and sometimes you don’t pick up on it and its all OK because of the pantomime nature of football.
"You walk into the stadium, and you don’t live by the same rules you would live by in the street.
"I think that has not changed, maybe social media has made it worse around, day to day, minute to minute, off the pitch, some people sit and watch a game at home and spend 89 minutes of the 90 tweeting, or posting their thoughts on the game rather than watching it. It is unfortunate."
