TEN memorable moments from Liverpool v Chelsea

Liverpool and Chelsea meet for the first time this season on Sunday in a renewal of what was once one of the Premier League’s great rivalries. 

The last 21 years have featured countless unforgettable matches, goals, manager battles, transfers and incidents.

Here, football writer Adrian Kajumba takes a close look at 10 of the biggest moments. 

Chelsea pip Liverpool to Champions League spot - May 2003

The histories of Chelsea and the Premier League in particular could have turned out so differently had there been an alternative outcome to the showdown between the two clubs in May 2003.

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With Chelsea fourth, Liverpool fifth and just goal difference separating them, their battle for the remaining UEFA Champions League place came down to a final-day, high-stakes Stamford Bridge battle.

Thanks to goals from Marcel Desailly and Jesper Gronkjaer, after Sami Hyppia’s Liverpool opener, Chelsea earned the coveted prize. But time revealed there was far more on the line that day. 

Claudio Ranieri’s players kicked off knowing the club would be in financial difficulties if they failed to secure Champions League football and big names would have to be sold.

It later emerged that Frank Lampard, who went on to become Chelsea’s all-time top scorer with 211 goals, would have been one.

Instead, just under two months after they edged out Liverpool, Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea.

Having looked at other clubs, Chelsea having Champions League football was reportedly a factor in billionaire Abramovich’s decision and he went on to transform them into one of England and European football’s dominant forces.

Having lost out to the old Chelsea at the end of 2002/03, Liverpool were then the first Premier League side to directly feel the impact of the Blues' new riches.

The Abramovich era got under way in 2003/04 with a 2-1 win at Anfield, a result secured by a new-look Chelsea side overhauled by the first of many Abramovich spending sprees.

Gianfranco Zola v Jamie Carragher - May 2003 

Gianfranco Zola and Jamie Carragher will remember Chelsea’s May 2003 win for additional reasons. 

For Zola, it was the day the curtain came down on his brilliant seven-year Chelsea career with one final appearance as a late substitute.

And he signed off with one last moment of magic, taunting Liverpool's defenders during a twisting dribble as he helped Chelsea run down the clock. 

Zola's magical send-off

Carragher was the biggest victim of Zola’s fancy footwork and joked: “Every year I get sent this clip by Chelsea fans. He gave me twisted blood.

“But I should say it was the last minute of the game, we needed to get the ball back so we were diving in. And the ball went out for a goal kick so it wasn’t like a goal came from it. 

“I need to start fighting my own corner. I’ve let it go for too long. Nothing actually came from it so what was the point? Except for a good meme or clip on social media.” 

Steven Gerrard almost joining Chelsea - 2004 and 2005

Steven Gerrard is Mr Liverpool so the significance of his flirtation with Chelsea during his career cannot be understated. 

The first time “temptation entered my life,” as he described it in his autobiography, was in 2004. 

With Liverpool stagnating, Gerrard was attracted by Chelsea’s ambition and resources under Abramovich and their long-standing interest, which was initially shown by Ranieri and then maintained by their charismatic new manager Jose Mourinho. 

But, after consulting his family, he ultimately decided, “I couldn’t leave Liverpool. My roots went too deep.” 

His loyalty was tested again the following summer.

Protracted contract negotiations after he inspired Liverpool to their unforgettable 2005 UEFA Champions League triumph over AC Milan in Istanbul were among the factors that left a bad taste in the mouth and led to Gerrard submitting a transfer request, while Chelsea reportedly tabled a £32million bid. 

But, again, Gerrard could not “jump over the edge of that cliff”.

“I could see great possibilities of Chelsea but my heart wouldn’t let me leave Liverpool,” he said after eventually signing a new four-year contract. “When I put pen to paper that Friday it was like signing a love letter. I was so glad my brief flirtation with Chelsea was over.”

The peak of the rivalry - 2004-2009 

Familiarity bred contempt as the rivalry between Chelsea and Liverpool reached its height during this five-year period. 

It began in the summer of 2004 when both Mourinho and Rafael Benitez arrived at Chelsea and Liverpool respectively and were looking to establish themselves in English football.

And the two sides locked horns an incredible 24 times in just five seasons in the period that followed, clashing in UEFA Champions League in each one.

The managers helped fuel the feud with occasional pointed digs about each other, their clubs and approaches.

With both becoming so synonymous with their respective clubs, it increased the surprise factor when Benitez was later appointed Chelsea’s interim manager in November 2012.

The importance of many of the encounters and controversy in others further ramped up the rivalry in which both enjoyed their moments.

For Chelsea, there was the 2005 League Cup final win, the 2008 semi-final and 2009 quarter-final triumphs in the Champions League, plus the Premier League edge via two titles.

But there was Liverpool success too - a Champions League semi-final win courtesy of Luis Garcia’s “ghost goal” en route to winning the competition in 2005, another success in 2007's last four plus an FA Cup semi-final win in 2006. 

Carragher summed up the animosity between the two, once saying: “I couldn’t stand [Chelsea] as a club. It surpassed Everton and Manchester United as our rivalry for a period.”

Reds end Chelsea’s unbeaten home run - October 2008

Another big Liverpool win during this period came at Stamford Bridge in 2008.

Mourinho had left by this point but it would have been no less satisfying for Benitez to be the manager who finally ended Chelsea’s long unbeaten Premier League home run.

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It stood at 86 matches, which remains a record, until Benitez’s side claimed a 1-0 win at Chelsea thanks to Jose Bosingwa’s early own goal.

That ended four-and-a-half years without a home defeat on their own patch for Chelsea.

The remarkable spell began in March 2004 under Ranieri, was extended by Mourinho - who did not lose a single one of his 60 home league games - and maintained by Avram Grant.

But Luiz Felipe Scolari eventually had the misfortune of overseeing the loss that ended Chelsea’s proud record.

Fernando Torres transfer - January 2011

Unlike Gerrard, Fernando Torres had no such concerns about leaving Liverpool for Chelsea as he made one of the biggest shock transfers in Premier League history.

Torres became one of the fiercest strikers in Europe at Liverpool, scoring 81 goals in 142 matches across all competitions.

For all his goals, though, there was no silverware with the Reds. 

The high-profile departures of the likes of Xabi Alonso, Javier Mascherano and manager Benitez plus ownership uncertainty left Liverpool needing “five or six years to create that winning team,” Torres learned. “I didn’t have that time.” 

Chelsea, he believed, could offer him the trophy chances he wanted and he handed in a transfer request to help force through a reported £50m move to Stamford Bridge - a British record at the time. 

Torres, whose Chelsea debut came against Liverpool of all clubs, did get his trophies - the Champions League, Europa League and an FA Cup.

But the injury-related decline that began at Liverpool accelerated at Chelsea and his time in London with Chelsea was equally memorable for and marred by some bad misses and long goal droughts. 

Steven Gerrard’s slip - April 2014

Few managers delight in playing party pooper more than Mourinho, and one of his most famous days as a disruptor came at Anfield in 2014. 

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With Liverpool going for the title and frustrated by Chelsea’s reportedly unsuccessful appeal to get the game moved, they went to Anfield with one mission: “To destroy their party,” Mourinho said.

He also described the occasion, due to the expectation Liverpool would be champions, as “a circus”. 

But he told his players: “We are not going to be the clowns.”

Mourinho’s appearance set the tone. Unshaven, sporting a tracksuit and gilet, he and Chelsea were there to get stuck in. 

And with a weakened side they employed every trick in the book to frustrate Liverpool and win 2-0. 

The first goal is etched in the folklore not just of this fixture but Premier League history too after Gerrard’s untimely slip, which haunts him to this day, allowed Demba Ba to run through and put Chelsea 1-0 up.

Mourinho then celebrated Willian’s clinching goal in typically provocative fashion, with a touchline dash past Liverpool’s fans towards Chelsea’s while beating the club badge on his chest.

Mourinho's touchline celebration

Salah's goal and iconic celebration - April 2019

A memorable goal in the history of this fixture from Mohamed Salah was followed by a celebration to match. 

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Five years after a Chelsea side containing Salah came to Anfield and put a huge dent in Liverpool’s title hopes, he was on the other side this time and ensured there would be no repeat.

Salah settled Liverpool’s nerves and lifted the roof off Anfield in the process with a stunning second goal, cutting in from the right and thumping a rising drive into Kepa Arrizabalaga’s top corner.

Though they ultimately missed out to eventual champions Manchester City by just a point, at the time Salah’s strike sent Liverpool two points clear of Pep Guardiola’s side with four matches left to play. 

And there was no muted celebration from Salah after his spectacular strike against his former club as he instead performed a tree pose.

"I am a yoga man,” he said. “I do yoga and it just came into my mind.”

Liverpool win the title - July 2020

This match took place behind closed doors due to the Coronavirus pandemic restrictions, resulting in it being an occasion that sticks in the memory for two reasons. 

Firstly, Liverpool finally won their first top-flight title for 30 years but had to do so in the unique surroundings of a near-empty stadium.

The lack of supporters also meant there was no crowd noise to drown out a touchline spat between the two managers, Frank Lampard and Jurgen Klopp.

Lampard, a three-time Premier League title winner, could be heard accusing Klopp of “giving it the big ‘un” after the “only league title you’ve ever won” as he renewed his rivalry with Liverpool from his playing days. 

Looking back on the incident, Lampard laughed: “I regret the language slightly. My daughter was 13 at the time and the next day she was showing me not to be proud of it.

“I don’t regret the emotions but I regret some of the language.”

Reaction to Klopp’s shock announcement - January 2024

Premier League-wise, Klopp’s long Liverpool farewell began with an emphatic win over Chelsea.

Following his shock announcement that he would be leaving Anfield after nine years, the remainder of the season became about seeing him off in the best way possible.

On a stirring night of increased emotion everywhere at Anfield, from the stands through to Klopp’s post-match victory fist pumps, Liverpool began their attempts to do so with a thrilling performance befitting the occasion as they blew Chelsea away 4-1, in a dress rehearsal for the Carabao Cup final that the Reds also won a month later.

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It was also a landmark night for Klopp, inspired by young full-back Conor Bradley who scored one goal and set up two, as the German became just the seventh manager to win 200 Premier League matches. 

Only Guardiola, in 269 matches, did it quicker than Klopp managed to in 318 games. 

“A great night. What an atmosphere, what a football game. It was a screamer actually,” Klopp said.