da blaze casino： Chelsea and Liverpool will meet in the Premier League for the 52nd time this Sunday and while their rather unique rivalry, amongst the only in the top flight that isn’t purely geographical, has reached more intense peaks over the last 26 years, there’s plenty to play for in the 4.30pm kickoff – chiefly, Champions League qualification.
da lvbet： Indeed, a draw will be enough for Liverpool to cement a spot in the top four and essentially seal the Champions League places off from the fifth-placed Blues. But can previous encounters between these two sides tell us anything about what to expect on Sunday? Here’s the complete Premier League history of Chelsea vs Liverpool…
Head-to-head
You’ll find few Premier League fixtures as evenly split as this one. Both sides have won, lost and drawn the same number of games from their 51 meetings in the top flight, although Chelsea are slightly ahead of the Reds when including goal difference, scoring twice more.
It hasn’t always been that way though; Chelsea didn’t actually beat Liverpool in the Premier League until 1997 and are amid a tough spell against the Reds once again – their last league victory over them coming in 2014. In fact, this is the fourth time the Anfield club have enjoyed an undefeated run of at least five games against Chelsea in the Premier League, whereas the Blues have managed just one – winning all five during Jose Mourinho’s affluent first spell.
Top Scorers
Rather incredibly, the top five goalscorers in this fixture down the years have all scored exactly five goals. That includes Fernando Torres who, despite presenting both clubs, never actually scored against Liverpool in the Premier League. Instead, all of his strikes came against the Blues in just four outings for the Reds. Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink, meanwhile, netted against Liverpool the fourth-most times of any club throughout his career with seven overall, scoring thrice for the Blues during the 2000/01 season alone.
It’s a similar case for Patrik Berger – no club conceded more goals from the winger than Chelsea during his time in England. The rest of the top five is made up, unsurprisingly, of Merseyside strike alumni, but if there’s one player involved on Sunday who has a chance of jumping to the top scorer chart’s summit, it’s Eden Hazard – with three Premier League goals against the Reds, a hat-trick this weekend will move him into pole position.
The shared hero – Fernando Torres
An icon who broke hearts at Liverpool, and a club-record signing who became a cult hero for all the wrong reasons at Chelsea. Indeed, when the Blues forked out £50million to prise the Spaniard from Anfield in January 2011 after netting 81 goals in 142 appearances for the Reds, he was easily amongst the greatest strikers in the world – if not the very best already. Liverpool fans fumed but the Torres who turned up at Stamford Bridge just wasn’t the same player; in stark contrast, he managed just 45 goals in 172 appearances and the front-man’s dramatic slump in form – not to mention his recurring knack of missing open goals – became a running joke in English football.
That being said, Torres did have his moments for the Blues; he was part of their Champions League winning squad in 2012, famously scoring in the semi-final against Barcelona to induce Gary Neville’s goal-gasm. A year later, he was their top scorer as Chelsea gained another continental crown in the form of the Europa League. Great moments for both clubs, but remembered bitter-sweetly by the two sets of fans for differing reasons.
The classic contest – Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool (May 2003)
The contents of the match itself, famed for winger Jesper Gronkjaer scoring one of just seven goals he managed in 88 appearances for Chelsea, is almost irrelevant. How it changed the course of history, however, remains of instrumental significance to the Premier League. The story goes that Chelsea were facing significant financial strife, knowing only Champions League football would be able to cover the cost of the gigantic wage bill amassed at Stamford Bridge, and qualification came down to the final day of the season – the Blues and Liverpool involved in a straight-up shootout for fourth place.
Fortune unquestionably favoured the home side; the aforementioned Gronkjaer uncharacteristically setting up the first goal before his slip while shooting saw the ball sneak into the bottom corner for Chelsea’s second. But it’s further alleged that European football is a big part of the reason Roman Abramovich bought the club in summer 2003. Three years later, Chelsea had won back-to-back Premier League titles under Jose Mourinho. And six years after that, Chelsea weren’t simply qualifying for Europe’s top tournament – they were winning it. Had Liverpool come out on top during that fateful encounter instead, we could be looking at a very different Premier League right now – one without Chelsea as serial title winners and the incredible influx of foreign owners.
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