Jurgen Klopp says his Liverpool side do not have to compete with Manchester City's style as they restored their five-point gap at the top of the Premier League.
Klopp's side won their 15th league game in a row at Chelsea as first-half goals from Trent Alexander-Arnold and Roberto Firmino set up a 2-1 win.
It came 24 hours after reigning champions City posted a club-record Premier League win when they beat Watford 8-0 and this fascinating battle between to two teams continues.
Their win at Stamford Bridge was far from pretty and they were hanging on at the end after N'Golo Kante's fine goal got Chelsea back in it.
🙌1⃣5⃣ League wins in a row
— Sporting Life Football (@SportingLifeFC) September 22, 2019
⚽️4⃣2⃣ Goals scored, 12 conceded
💪6⃣/6⃣ #EPL wins this season
⚽️1⃣7⃣ Goals scored, 5 conceded
🔴👏 Liverpool beat the run of Arsenal's Invincibles and are now just three behind Man City's all-time record.#LFC #CHELIV pic.twitter.com/NYJibr04Q0
Klopp, who watched City's highlights after training on Saturday, says it is points that matter and that is where Liverpool have the early advantage.
Asked what he thought of City's win, the German replied: "I wanted to see the goals. I saw a 2:50 summary when we left the training pitch. I saw eight goals and three times the woodwork.
"I have to watch fully to really understand it. If it can happen against anyone it can happen against City. It happened to us a few years ago when we lost 5-0.
"I said it before, they are the best team in the world. I don't want to put pressure on Pep (Guardiola), they are brilliant in moments - we are not bad as well.
"This type of football not a lot of teams can play, but we play in our way, we try to win football games. In the end we need to get the points, there is no competition in technical things, it is about the points.
"I still don't see that it is only two teams. At the moment we don't have to think about it. It's matchday six, we are talking about the title with 32 games to go, I think that it is a bit early."
It looked like being a routine three-point haul for the Reds as Alexander-Arnold's brilliant free-kick was added to by Firmino's free header.
Chelsea, who had a goal ruled out by VAR at 1-0, did not wilt after the break, though, and Kante's fine individual strike had Liverpool hanging on.
"It was very good in moments, Chelsea had their moments of course because they are so good," Klopp said.
"We scored two wonderful goals, we had a lot of brilliant pressing situations but we didn't use the ball well enough.
"After half-time we had two big chances and it could have been three or four but we didn't score.
"When Kante scored his great goal it was game on. It's a difficult place to come, it's a while ago that we won here. It's a big win.
"The boys did really well, they fought really hard. I don't think there is any other way to win here. It's a big win."
Frank Lampard is still waiting for a first home win in charge of Chelsea and admits he is concerned by their inability to win at Stamford Bridge.
But he was also enthused by their second-half performance.
"It's definitely a concern, we want to win at home," he said. "Against Liverpool you know you can lose, they are a strong team and it can happen. I expect the home win to come soon.
🔴👊 Liverpool breaking more records today...
— Sporting Life Football (@SportingLifeFC) September 22, 2019
6⃣ First team to win opening six #EPL games in successive seasons.
7⃣ First #LFC team to win seven league away games in a row.
🔝 Their 15th straight #EPL win restores their five-point lead...#CHELIV https://t.co/28qZd6l0XR
"It is hard to accept congratulations after a loss, but the way we played in the second half is towards where we want to be.
"Energy, passion, moving the ball quickly, changing the play, getting crosses into the box, things we work on and we did it against Liverpool.
"I don't mind losing, I will take today but it now needs to translate to points because that performance week in, week out is going to amass points and we need to do that and keep improving."
Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool Opta stats
- Liverpool are the first team in top-flight history to win their opening six matches of a top-flight season in two consecutive seasons.
- Chelsea have conceded 13 goals in their six Premier League matches this season – their most after six league matches of a season since 1978-79 (also 13), when they went on to finish bottom of the First Division.
- Liverpool have won consecutive Premier League matches against Chelsea for the first time since a run of four wins between November 2010 and May 2012.
- Liverpool have won their last 15 league matches – the only team with a longer winning run in top-flight history is Manchester City (18 between August and December 2017).
- Chelsea have lost consecutive home matches in all competitions for the first time since April 2014, when they lost against Sunderland and Atlético Madrid.
- Jürgen Klopp managed his 150th Premier League game today – he has registered 92 wins in those games, with only José Mourinho (105) winning more in his first 150 matches in the competition.
- Frank Lampard is only the second Chelsea manager to fail to win any of his first four home matches in all competitions (W0 D2 L2), after Bobby Campbell in 1988.
- Since the start of the 2018-19 season, Liverpool have scored 34 goals from set-piece situations in the Premier League – seven more than any other team.
- Chelsea have failed to win any of their opening three home Premier League matches in a season for only the second time, also doing so in 2001-02 during Frank Lampard’s first season there as a player.
