A Timeline of the Antagonistic Rivalry Between Chelsea and Liverpool

“Chelsea grab the big money by spending virtually nothing,” read the match report in the Telegraph (via LFCHistory) after Jesper Gronkjaer scored the goal that gave the Blues a 2-1 win over Liverpool on the final day of the 2002/03 season.

When the Dane curled his effort past Jerzy Dudek on May 11, 2003, little did he or anybody watching realise the importance that goal would have not only on Chelsea Football Club, but English football.

Gronkjaer’s goal proved the match winner and therefore secured fourth place and a spot in the Champions League for Claudio Ranieri’s side. Liverpool, managed by Gerard Houllier, finished three points behind.

“Deprived of transfer funds, Claudio Ranieri was forced to seek improvement from the existing squad,” wrote that same report in the Telegraph. These were very different times.

The match was effectively a Champions League play-off, but it transpired to be much, much more important than that. As explained by Mark Fleming in the Independent in 2011:

It was dubbed the £20m match, but that was a drop in the ocean compared with what it proved to be worth to Chelsea as within weeks Roman Abramovich had swept in on his white charger to buy the club for £140m. Eight years on, and his outlay is close to £1bn.

But had Liverpool won on that spring day, who knows what might have happened? Abramovich would almost certainly have taken his roubles elsewhere, and Chelsea could have suffered a similar fate to Leeds, or possibly worse, as they were facing financial oblivion at the time.

Abramovich’s arrival at Chelsea changed English football forever. In the space of just 47 days, the London club spent a staggering £103 million—an unprecedented amount back in 2003. The Russian funded another £93 million shopping spree the following summer, when also appointing Jose Mourinho as manager.

As explained in a new book by author Simon Hughes, ‘Ring of Fire: Liverpool FC into the 21st Century’, Abramovich’s arrival was as transformative in English football as Sky’s introduction to the Premier League back in 1992.

It was also the reason Liverpool’s long-term owner David Moores decided he had to sell the club in order for the Merseysiders to compete with the Russian’s millions. The Moores family had owned Liverpool for more than 50 years before they eventually sold to George Gillett and Tom Hicks in February 2007, four years after Abramovich bought Chelsea and had won back-to-back league titles in 2005 and 2006.

The decision to sell was made within a year of Abramovich’s arrival. As explained by then Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry, telling Hughes: “He [Moores] was really concerned by Abramovich coming in and all the money Chelsea were spending. David didn’t want to hold back. So in 2004, he decided it was necessary to make a change.”

Mourinho vs. Benitez

That summer saw Houllier depart Anfield and Rafael Benitez was appointed, creating an almighty rivalry between the two clubs and their respective new managers.

The two Iberian managers challenged the English top flight, adding tactical nous both domestically and in Europe, creating a new top four between Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. Benitez and Mourinho were new challengers for stalwarts Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson. The tactical level of the …

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