31 January 2024 , 08:23
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The first Premier League game Liverpool won under manager Jurgen Klopp was a 3-1 victory over Chelsea back in 2015.
Now, almost nine years and six major trophies later, they are set to face the Blues again in the first league game since Klopp announced he would be leaving the club at the end of the season.
Back in 2015, the German took charge at Anfield on October 8 after previous manager Brendan Rodgers was axed following a 1-1 draw against rivals Everton. His first two games against Tottenham and Southampton also ended in draws, before Liverpool thrashed a struggling Chelsea 3-1 at Stamford Bridge.
The victory piled more pressure on under-fire Blues boss Jose Mourinho, who was left speechless after the game. "I can't express my feelings in any way at all," Mourinho told BBC Sport in his post-match interview.
"You are not just here to interview me. You are also here to see the game. What I see from my players was good until the moment they felt it was impossible to do better. The fans are not stupid, I don't need to tell them anything.
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"They know how much myself and the players are trying. They know why they are getting bad results. The fight goes on, but sometimes there are fights very impossible to win."
Mourinho ultimately lasted another month and a half before he was sacked for the second time by Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich, with Guus Hiddink once again taking interim charge for the rest of the season.
Klopp's first Premier League win came against Chelsea back in October 2015 (Getty Images)Klopp and Liverpool, meanwhile, have gone from strength to strength since that day and are still competing for four trophies this season. Speaking ahead of tonight's meeting between the two sides, Klopp praised the work current Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino has done.
"They play really good stuff," he said. "It's a really good team. [They have] an outstanding manager obviously and nobody was ever [in] doubt about that. So, I'm not 100 per cent sure, but I think it's a team in form points-wise [and] won the majority of their games recently.
"We played them on the first matchday, obviously there we were not great that day and they were pretty good and we got a draw, which was fine for us that day.
"We were not over the moon with our performance but the point was alright. So, we have to do better but we are different as well since then and that's the good news."