Old enmities bubble to the surface as Chelsea close gap on Klopp’s champions
At the height of the epic spats between Liverpool and Chelsea in the early 2000s, Rafael Benitez pinpointed the moment when relations soured. “As soon as we started to beat them,” the former Anfield coach said.
The more Liverpool and Chelsea consider the other direct obstacles to high ambition, the more tensions will rise. When the opponent is not deemed a threat, any rivalry goes through a period of sedation.
That has certainly been the case in recent years, save for the delight Chelsea took from Demba Ba’s role in denying Liverpool in the 2014 title race, and a couple of badtempered League Cup ties when Diego Costa and Jordan Henderson almost came to blows.
There has been nothing comparable to the annual Champions League squabbles between 20052009, when Liverpool fought to preserve their status by disrupting Roman Abramovich’s seemingly inevitable surge towards dominance.
In 2020, those roles are reversed and there have been signs of the feistiness returning as Chelsea strive to re-establish their Premier League superiority. Liverpool’s 5-3 win in July ensured Frank Lampard was still sweating on Champions League qualification going into the final weekend, while Jurgen Klopp’s squad prepared for the trophy presentation.
The visitors’ anxieties spilt over as insults were traded between the Chelsea head coach and Liverpool’s coaching staff. Klopp strenuously denied any personal enmity between him and Lampard before tomorrow’s trip to Stamford Bridge, and the rival coaches do not look likely to exchange barbs with the frequency and venom of Benitez and Jose Mourinho.
“There is no rivalry. When I hear about these kinds of things, I don’t get it,” said Klopp. “I heard some
people would be happy if it was a rivalry like it was between Arsene Wenger and Sir Alex Ferguson. I am pretty sure these two guys were good with each other as well. I do not think the world needs these stories.”
The flaw in Klopp blaming journalists is that the opening paragraphs were dictated by the coaches. Lampard’s swipe at the “arrogance” of members of Liverpool’s backroom staff was no media invention. Nor was Klopp’s forceful response, telling Lampard he should “close the book at the final whistle” when involved in mid-game spats.
“Frank has to learn this and he has a lot of time to learn as he is a young coach,” said Klopp at the time.
When the Liverpool manager recently sought to defend his club’s prudence in this summer’s transfer window compared to Chelsea’s – leaving no room for ambiguity regarding Abramovich with a reference to “oligarchs” – Lampard again stood his ground to the delight of Chelsea’s followers.
“[Liverpool’s] is a great story, but it’s a story where they’ve spent money on players,” said Lampard.
“What I said was, in the situation we are in we cannot deal with the situation like other clubs,” Klopp explained. “One of them is Chelsea. That creates a rivalry between Frank Lampard and me? We meet three times a year. I respect what he is doing.”
But even without supporters, the history between the clubs means the idea of Liverpool versus Chelsea lacking more edge than other fixtures stretches credibility.
“Chelsea are one of our closest rivals and there is always an edge when you play them just like when we play Manchester City, Manchester United or whoever,” said Liverpool left-back Andy Robertson, speaking at this week’s launch of his book Robbo: Now You’re Gonna Believe Us, chronicling the 2019-20 title win. “We’ve got the title and everyone wants to win this one this season.”