Jose Mourinho discusses Steven Gerrard’s slip and why Chelsea wanted to ‘destroy’ Liverpool
Liverpool welcomed Chelsea to Anfield on matchday 36 sitting in first place on 80 points, while their visitors arrived in third on 75 points.
But Liverpool’s 11-match winning run came to a catastrophic end on April 27. Club captain Steven Gerrard slipped when shaping to receive a pass back from Mamadou Sakho, allowing Demba Ba to steal possession and score against the run of play. The hosts threw everything at Chelsea in search of an equaliser but conceded to Willian in second-half stoppage time.
This result allowed Manchester City, who sat three points behind Liverpool with a superior goal difference and had a game in hand, to take control of the title race, eventually prevailing on the final day of the season.
Speaking on The Obi One Podcast, ex-Chelsea boss Mourinho admitted Gerrard did not deserve such a fate and he was close with Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers from their history working together. However, he was intent on spoiling the Anfield ‘party’.
“It was nothing to do with Brendan. In many fun moments, we used to call Brendan ‘the special two’. We had a very good relationship,” Mourinho began.
“What happened was, we were in the Champions League semi-final. We drew 0-0 with Atletico Madrid and we played at home on the second leg. And this game [against Liverpool] means nothing because we were going to finish second or third.
“I wanted to play the game on Friday night or Saturday. The Premier League didn’t do that for us. We were crying, we were complaining, we were begging, and they were saying it was because of audiences, because of Sky, because of I don’t know what.
“For us, it was about reaching the Champions League final, but I couldn’t go and play Liverpool with our Under-18s. It wouldn’t have been fair to Man City for us to go there even with our second team, so we wanted to do things in the right way.
“We wanted to play on the Friday night or on Saturday at 12pm maximum. They didn’t give us that, so when we went there, we went to destroy their party, and we went there like we were playing for the title, which we weren’t, but we gave everything to try to win.
“Of course, I gave a bit of rest to one or two guys, I played young [Tomas] Kalas, who had a fantastic game against Luis Suarez. We were on the bus and the guys outside were selling shirts with ‘Liverpool Champions’ on, and you can’t allow that as Chelsea. You have to keep the marketing and merchandise in a box.
“We played a fantastic match. Of course, Stevie G slipped, and he was the last person who deserved that to happen, but that’s part of football and in reality we played so well.
“I even felt sorry for Brendan because I’m always supporting my friends, but on matchday, friends stay at home.”
Chelsea would go on to lose the second leg of their Champions League semi-final 3-1 at home to Atletico Madrid, while Liverpool drew 3-3 at Crystal Palace after leading 3-0 the following week to essentially hand the title to City on a platter.
