Liverpool’s five best performances against Premier League’s big 6 under Jurgen Klopp
Liverpool earned the nickname ‘Robinhood’ last season after they ended the campaign undefeated against the Premier League’s big six, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs, while dropping points to the likes of Hull City, Sunderland, Crystal Palace and Swansea City.
Jurgen Klopp has a terrific record against the big six as Liverpool manager. Across all competitions, he has played 23 games against these teams, winning 11 games, drawing 11 and losing just one! Given below is a breakdown of how Klopp’s Liverpool have fared against each team.
Liverpool average an impressive 1.91 points per game against the big 6 under Klopp. If you add Everton to the list, the average jumps to 2.03 because Klopp has a perfect record against the local rivals (3 matches, 3 wins, 8 goals scored, 1 goal conceded and 2 cleansheets).
Very few managers have got the better of managers like Pep Guardiola and Jose Mourinho and Klopp has done a trick on both of them several times. Against Mourinho, Klopp has won three games, lost one and drawn four.
Guardiola on the other hand averages 1.3 points per game against Klopp which is his worst record against any manager he has faced at least five times. Interestingly though, in 10 meetings between Klopp and Guardiola, both managers have won four games each and the remaining two were drawn.
Guardiola will face his nemesis once again this weekend and before the match, let’s take a look at Liverpool’s top 5 performances against the Premier League’s big boys under Jurgen Klopp.
#5 Chelsea 1-3 Liverpool, 31 October 2015
When Liverpool play Chelsea, the significance of the game is usually high. However, this particular game’s significance had nothing to do with the title race or a Champions League spot.
Defending Premier League champions Chelsea had a horrible start to the season and were 15th in the table, whereas Liverpool were 9th and searching for their first Premier League win under new manager Klopp.
Chelsea started the game brightly and went 1-0 up in just four minutes courtesy of a goal from Ramires.
Under Brendan Rodgers, Liverpool struggled to win games after going behind, but Klopp wanted to change that mentality. Undaunted after going behind early at Stamford Bridge, the Reds fought valiantly and equalized through Philippe Coutinho right on the stroke of halftime.
The Brazilian put the Reds 2-1 in front in the second half before substitute Christian Benteke added a third.
Liverpool ended the game with 57% possession, 16 shots, 7 on target and 7 corners. In comparison, Chelsea had 43% possession, 8 shots, 2 on target and just one corner.
The win was Klopp’s first in the Premier League and the match is also famous for Jose Mourinho’s famous “I have nothing to say” comments in his post match interview.