Chelsea 1 Liverpool 2: Admiration abounds in Stamford Bridge dugouts but Jurgen Klopp claims spoils from Antonio Conte

1/9
Vaishali Bhardwaj27 September 2016

Last week, it was Jose Mourinho coming up against Pep Guardiola in the Manchester derby and on Friday it was Antonio Conte vs Jurgen Klopp. Two of the Premier League's most highly-rated managers went head-to-head for the first time as Chelsea hosted Liverpool in the mouth-watering Friday night match at Stamford Bridge.

The game was as anticipated for the return of David Luiz to west London as it was for the arrival of Klopp and his free-scoring Liverpool side, who managed to secure a 3-1 win over Chelsea here last season.

Then, the German coach had only had a few short weeks to get to know his new players but he successfully came to the Bridge and oversaw a superb victory over Mourinho's struggling Chelsea side, who went on to finish the season in a lowly 10th position.

But, on Friday, Klopp came into Liverpool's clash against Chelsea knowing that the Blues would not prove such easy opposition this time around. Indeed, Chelsea arrived to the Bridge still unbeaten in the Premier League, unlike Liverpool, who succumbed to a 2-0 loss away to Burnley on matchday two.

Liverpool FC via Getty Images

Yet for all of the intense rivalry between Chelsea and Liverpool in recent years, both Conte and Klopp were highly respectful and complimentary towards each other in the build-up to the clash.

Speaking ahead of the game, Klopp called Conte the "Pep Guardiola of Turin" before the Italian responded by saying: "I have great difficulty describing the other people...but Jurgen Klopp is a great manager, one of the best in the world, and is showing great capacity at Liverpool to be a great manager."

Such positive feeling between the two managers was seen on the touchline once the game began as Conte and Klopp never once came face to face in any sort of argument or the like despite the fierce nature of the clash.

What was clear to see, however, was that Klopp was the more relaxed of the two coaches. While his Chelsea counterpart barely sat down at all, Klopp spent the first half, during which his Liverpool side dominated the game at the Bridge, watching on calmly from his seat.

The former Borussia Dortmund manager appeared happy to allow his team to execute their training on the Stamford Bridge pitch against Chelsea while Conte had to be told to return to his technical area after he left it to give his players further instructions once Diego Costa had got a goal back in the second half.

Klopp's calm demeanour did change, though, when the Brazilian netted in the 61st minute. After briefly getting up and sitting back down again, the German spent the latter stages of the clash barking orders to his players as Chelsea showed a renewed sense of purpose and threatened to equalise.

The only time there was any sort of what some may perceive to be 'ill feeling' between Conte and Klopp was when the former waited after the full-time whistle to shake the Liverpool manager's hand but instead found the German too caught up with his celebrations to notice. Even then, Conte insisted afterwards Klopp didn't mean to snub him and so there was no ill-feeling between the two managers.

Such respectful behaviour between two of the world's most highly-rated coaches was certainly good to see in what was the pair's first meeting in the Premier League.

For Conte - much like Mourinho last weekend - attention will now turn to getting back to winning ways with a big encounter coming up against Arsene Wenger's Arsenal side in the league next Saturday.

Klopp, on the other hand - rather like Guardiola - now needs to keep his players fully focused if they want to avoid a hangover as they did against Burnley after beating Arsenal on matchday one.

But, from what was on show at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Liverpool, fans can be confident that Conte and Klopp will continue to ensure their teams put on mouth-watering spectacles on the pitch much like on Friday night even if no drama is to be found on the touchline.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in