Liverpool have won their opening five games of a top-flight season for only the third time, after 1978-79 and 1990-91. There was no greater display of this than that win over City, that involved the emotional empowerment of coming on the same week as the 25th anniversary of Hillsborough. “You speak with Jamie Redknapp and he'll tell you everything! There was a lot of that in the team meeting beforehand, and the changing room. vs Liverpool. “He thought we could go out and attack Chelsea - just as we had done against Manchester City and Norwich,” Gerrard wrote. “You could feel it was having an effect on the fans, massively, but also the players. Your captain needs you to all pay him back.”. Disappointed with the result but we need to keep working and improving. There was even a drive-by for another Sky pundit. Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? That was our best game of the season. Request. “I remember the manager saying right from the off, take your time, don’t allow them to gain momentum, get the fans riled up, get them out of their rhythm,” Schwarzer explains. He can explain everything.”. It was belief, however, with a highly rationalised focus. The really relevant point to this was that it was a level of agitation, and impatience, that just didn’t fit with the fact Liverpool only needed a draw. “What an unbelievable experience. “An ugly game” as Suarez said, yes, but an utterly immersive one. Liverpool maintained their perfect start to the season with a 2-1 victory over Tottenham at Wembley. A 41-year-old Schwarzer, a 21-year-old Mohamed Salah and a 20-year-old Tomas Kalas - who’d never started a senior game for Chelsea - were in. He revelled in it all, running up to Chelsea away support, and beating the club crest on his gilet. Philippe Coutinho was otherwise overhitting passes, Gerrard was failing to make it past the first man with subsequent set-pieces, and Suarez was shanking shots. Are you sure you want to delete this comment? The spell of the stadium had been broken. Tottenham travel to Inter Milan and Liverpool host PSG on Tuesday before Spurs make the trip to Brighton in Saturday's tea-time kick-off and Liverpool welcome Southampton to Anfield on Saturday at 3pm. It just worked out worst for the man Anfield idolised above any other, and who Mourinho at one point wanted to sign above any other. Mourinho had disrupted everything. Every early goal fired every win, with that gradually convincing every player - even figures as cautious as Gerrard, or as superstitious as Suarez. It was unravelling, their biggest fears happening in front of them that day. Their passing was slow, with little movement. By that point in the game, though, they barely had the belief to send in crosses. That was some achievement, and required some effort. Anfield had not been tense before kick-off. “They pulled us out of our normal routine,” he wrote. That difference in outlook was complemented by a big difference in philosophy, as the best attack in the league faced the best defence. It also proved something of a bell-weather about Mourinho, too. You can find our Community Guidelines in full here. “The whole way up to the stadium was like a carnival atmosphere.”, Mourinho had another term for it. I am relaxed, I'm not worried. “We had none of our usual tempo and venom,” he said. The scorer of the famous “ghost goal” between the sides in the 2004-05 Champions League, he raised the roof, and raised memories of just how deep the acrimony between the clubs went. Two such goals came in the sensational win over City, with the way it actually went to 2-2 only offering another emotional lift, as Liverpool claimed a late winner. It was a very intense job and the boys did it. The second half saw Gerrard attempt a total of eight shots, with Opta calculating that all were from an average of 27 yards out. However Spurs, who looked to be carrying a hangover from their defeat at Watford, were left off the hook when the effort was ruled out, with the offside Firmino adjudged to have interfered in play. It saw Tomas Kalas make his Premier League debut, Throughout the game Chelsea were accused of time wasting. 1. “No I don't think it's a tactic to have players behind the ball - anyone can do that. Luis Suarez, previously so superstitious he implored supporters to sing anything other than “we’re gonna win the league”, admitted to letting himself believe. What an unbelievable occasion.”. That match five years ago, as one figure who has worked with him argues, was something of a last stand; maybe his last truly great managerial performance. “It was through you all the time. Jamie Redknapp is a brilliant football brain. “We’re not going to be the club that is the pushover on the way to Liverpool winning the title.”, Steven Gerrard looks on, as the Chelsea fans celebrate behind him. The whole stadium went quiet.”. Fewer still had a single moment as jaw-droppingly meaningful as this. It was the type of apparent clairvoyance that had in the past made Mourinho seem like a prophet, also making so many previous players idolise him. White Hart LaneAttendance: Attendance36,069. They wanted the clowns!”. Rodgers had even played on some of the emotion, by getting the players’ mothers to come up with speeches that were read out before games on the run-in, bringing some players to tears. Liverpool had all the ball and all the pressure, but were doing little with it, and certainly weren’t doing what they usually did. “Things will happen today.”. Far from the clowns, the Chelsea players were dramatis personae in an immersive psychodrama, pregnant with immediate and lasting consequence. “Whether he believed it himself, I don’t know, but Jose made us believe.”. Slowing the match down had wound them up, and also caused them to go from side to side weighing up every decision. Want an ad-free experience?Subscribe to Independent Premium. “I remember, for the very first goal-kick of the game, Jose had instructions for me and Branislav Ivanovic,” Schwarzer tells The Independent. Just as the Portuguese had predicted, Liverpool’s play had progressed to the point where they so strived to open Chelsea that Gerrard found himself as the last man. “Even Suarez looked off-colour.”. Chelsea had noticed all of this, as Schwarzer insists. Because they wanted the game to be high-tempo, wanted to catch the opposition out, wanted to bombard them, like they did all season very successfully. Liverpool’s in-game mentality by then had changed, but certainly not for the better. Mourinho’s slowing of the game had created an engagingly slow-burn occasion. One senior Chelsea figure added: “Of all the clubs in the league, do you think he will want to play a weakened team against Liverpool?”. Liverpool midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum's opener was the 19th Premier League goal of his career but the first to come in an away game. Their gameplan wasn’t just based on psychologically frustrating Liverpool. The tour de force continued in the post-match press conference. The atmosphere around the city only further riled him. All of Eden Hazard, Petr Cech and John Terry were out. Create a commenting name to join the debate, There are no Independent Premium comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts, There are no comments yet - be the first to add your thoughts. The Chelsea manager had been justifiably annoyed his team were being made to play a mere three days before the Champions League semi-final second leg against Diego Simeone’s Atletico Madrid, with that influencing his weakened line-up. I'm really proud of them.". Mark, set it up as if you’re going to play it out at the back, then Brana, you put your hand up and say you’ll take it. Even before that warm spring day evolved as it did, that meeting between Liverpool and Chelsea already had enough stark storylines to invigorate any occasion on their own. 15.12.13 17:00 spillede Tottenham mod Liverpool 0-5 i Premier League 2013/2014's 16. runde. And this was one of the keys to the entire game, and what was to become a decisive factor. Rodgers, for his part, said the best words he could. One Liverpool player privately confides that the manager fostered a sense of “fairytale” about it all, and that they were “basically floating on confidence and a brilliant Luis Suarez”. “And it worked.”. Georginio Wijnaldum's goal for Liverpool came via his 55th shot attempted in away Premier League games. Liverpool take on Jose Mourinho this weekend, the man who masterminded the demise of their title challenge in the 2013/14 season. Cesar Azpilicueta was soon labouring over a throw-in, and Andre Schurrle was playing back-passes from the halfway line. That was no solace at half-time. My confidence in these players is 200 per cent, not 100 per cent, 200 per cent. ", Jurgen Klopp: "It was very good. There was so nearly a sensational start for Liverpool, who had the ball in the back of the net inside a minute when Sadio Mane diverted a cross from the right beyond Michel Vorm.