Liverpool and Chelsea will do battle again this weekend, renewing a rivalry that once saw Frank Lampard accuse Jurgen Klopp of ‘giving it the biggun.’
Sitting first and fourth in the Premier League, respectively, the Reds, now with Arne Slot at the helm, and Enzo Maresca’s Blues have both started this term in impeccable form.
Led by the scintillating Cole Palmer, Chelsea have scored 16 goals already, a tally bested only by Manchester City.
Liverpool have dropped points just once this campaign, too, meaning the upcoming battle promises to be as mighty as the clash four years ago.
Lampard’s touchline spat with Klopp in 2020, which saw the Englishman unleash a volley of expletives before the Premier League trophy was held aloft at Anfield, was defended at the time by his uncle, Harry Redknapp, as both sides face off again at 4:30pm this Sunday.
Chelsea travelled to Anfield in July 2020, with Klopp’s Reds having already secured the league title. This occasion would give them the chance to finally lift the coveted Premier League trophy, although no fans would be present due to the pandemic.
With a guard of honour to open, tempers flared as the first half came to a close. Mateo Kovacic was pulled up for a foul despite Blues boss Lampard feeling passionately that his man got the ball.
Naby Keita had given his side the lead 15 minutes prior, and Trent Alexander-Arnold stepped up and curled the resulting free-kick into the top right corner, much to Lampard’s anguish. There would be no fightback, either, as the eight-goal thriller ended 5-3 to the champions.
This sparked fury from the Englishman, who could be heard telling his German counterpart to “f**k off” and stop “giving it the biggun.” Despite a rebuttal from Klopp, the former Chelsea manager’s uncle came to his defence.
Frank has been around professional football since he was a toddler,” Redknapp told The media. “He doesn’t need advice from anyone, although I’ve lots of respect for Klopp.“Frank is very calm usually, he doesn’t tend to get involved in things like this. For him to react like that, it must have been something to really wind him up. Frank respects Jurgen.
And I know he will just want to shake hands on it if he can and move on.“You don’t play so long at the very top and then become a Premier League manager so quickly if you don’t have brains. It would be good for them just to put it behind them.
Their paths will cross and it doesn’t help either of them if they can’t just see it as one of those moments when tempers are frayed.”Lampard suffered a similar fate two months later, losing 2-0 to Klopp’s side in the return fixture.
He was relieved of his duties not long after, in January 2021, and despite returning to the club in April 2023 as interim boss, he never faced Klopp again in the dugout.
This will be the first time in nearly a decade that Chelsea will face the Reds without Klopp at the helm, and if the two teams’ records so far are anything to go by, then perhaps more on-pitch sparks will fly.
