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Rivalries - Liverpool
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Rivalries - Liverpool
Send to a friendLiverpool - Chelsea Rivalry
The Liverpool-Chelsea rivalry is a recent one. That is because until recently, Chelsea were not on a level equivalent to that of Liverpool. But with the arrival of Roman Abramovich, Chelsea have become more competitive and thus a rivalry has been born. Much of the increase in the Chelsea-Liverpool rivalry is due to what has happened in Europe,
Of all the rivalries concerning the Big 4 English clubs (Arsenal, Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea) you would say that the Liverpool-Chelsea rivalry is the smallest of the six. The two aren’t geographical rivals nor do they have much shared history. As most of this rivalry has happened in the last five years, it is still very new and fresh.
For the most part there was no Chelsea-Liverpool rivalry and that was because of how dominant Liverpool was and how dominant Chelsea wasn’t. They were at opposite ends of the totem pole. Chelsea had won four major trophies or titles before 1997 and 10 subsequently. Compare this to Liverpool who has several bulging trophy cabinets.
Liverpool Facts
| Year Founded: | 1892 |
| Current Manager: | Roy Hodgson |
Top Liverpool Players
Fernando Torres
Steven Gerrard
Joe Cole
Chelsea Facts
| Year Founded: | 1905 |
| Current Manager: | Carlo Ancelotti |
Top Chelsea Players
Frank Lampard
John Terry
Didier Drogba
The clubs have, in the post-Mourinho era built up a very interesting rivalry. There does seem to be a genuine dislike between the two clubs, but unlike a simple case of geography, or a historical rivalry, the reasons for these two clubs dislike of each other is genuinely fascinating.
There are a few reasons for the rivalry being built up over the last decade, the primary one being that Liverpool haven’t won a league title in a very long time but have an incredibly successful history with it, and Chelsea have had recent success in the league, but have historically been less successful. So the Chelsea faithful can view Liverpool as resting on their laurels and living in the past, the Liverpool support can think of Chelsea has Nouveau riche types, who have only come into their own because of recent money being spent.
The other reasons seem to be that they always draw one another in the Champions League – in fact the above match was their 43,000th meeting in the competition in the last 5 years. Add that to twice in the league a season, and the occasional other cup draw and you can see why they might be sick of the sight of one another.
Another factor is the Lampard vs Gerrard debate, which has been a subplot of English football over the last decade. The point is, they are basically very similar players. They both score absurd amounts of goals from midfield, both somehow define the clubs they play for, both struggle to shine for England sometimes (at least untill Don Fabio found a way to make them play together) and neither is really loved by people that support clubs that aren’t Liverpool or Chelsea.
