Last October, Jurgen Klopp picked up his first league win as Liverpool manager at Stamford Bridge, but in time he may consider this result to be more significant.
Under Klopp, Liverpool have performed well in big matches so it could be argued that nothing has changed, that their next two league games against Hull and Swansea are more important than anything that happened against Chelsea, But that would be to stubbornly deny some of the thrilling aspects of the team being built.
Crucially, too, when Diego Costa scored with half an hour left to play, Liverpool took the sting out of any Chelsea revival. Liverpool took the ball away from Antonio Conte’s side, kept possession and only failed to score a third thanks to a superb save from Thibaut Courtois who kept out a Divock Origi header.
By then, there would have been plenty of consolations even if Chelsea had equalised, but they wouldn’t have deserved that. They lacked many of the qualities Liverpool possessed, qualities which were supposed to be as much as a part of a Conte side as a Klopp operation.
On Friday night, there was only one side prepared to run as both managers demand their teams to run and only one side which seemed to understand the benefits that would come from that collective approach.
Of course, it is early in the season. This was Chelsea’s first defeat and Conte is only weeks into his spell at the club. But the tradition at Chelsea suggests that any manager must approach matters with a sense of urgency from the outset. Under Roman Abramovich, a manager doesn’t need time, he only needs to get it right. And even then that isn’t always enough.
Liverpool might have been more exciting last weekend against Leicester, but this victory and the ruthlessness with which those Chelsea vulnerabilities were exposed were even more encouraging.
Here's @TonyBarrett from Anfield on a day that was about so much more than a new stand for #LFC https://t.co/fiBPXiBipv
— FootballJOE (@FootballJOE) September 10, 2016
There was evidence all through the side of the work Klopp is doing.
For an hour, Joel Matip looked superb in the centre of defence, until he went to ground and contributed hugely to Chelsea’s first goal. Jordan Henderson scored a spectacular goal, but his all-round play was almost as impressive, and Klopp might think even more important to the overall functioning of the side.
Chelsea, on the other hand, could have few consolations.
N’Golo Kante may have been signed to cover the ground in front of the defence, but he works on the basis that there is a defence, not the collection of louche individuals easing their way into the weekend he found himself marshalling on Friday night.
He wasn’t helped by the presence – in the loosest sense – of Nemanja Matic beside him in midfield, while Branislav Ivanovic appeared to see the return of David Luiz as some sort of challenge and set out to give a performance full of indiscipline and casual play.
At Leicester, Kante functioned in a team that knew what to do and understood its limitations. Chelsea don’t have those limitations, but they didn’t have that unity of purpose either.
What was surprising was that Conte’s side started without any of the aggression his teams customarily bring to matches. They spent the opening spell sitting back, wary of Liverpool’s pace when they should have been wary of their own lack of organisation.
Liverpool, on the other hand, seemed to trust in each other and Dejan Lovren’s opening goal came at the end of an opening spell of purpose and exposed the fault lines at the back for Chelsea.
Gary Cahill’s poor clearance before the second was another indication, but Henderson’s magnificent goal was an indication of the confidence surging through this Liverpool team.
What followed was an indication of their shared purpose, the collective will that Klopp considers essential and which will cause many to fear Liverpool as the season progresses.
