"Chelsea grab the big money by spending virtually nothing," read the match report in the Telegraph (via LFCHistory) after Jesper Gronkjaer scored the goal that gave the Blues a 2-1 win over Liverpool on the final day of the 2002/03 season.
When the Dane curled his effort past Jerzy Dudek on May 11, 2003, little did he or anybody watching realise the importance that goal would have not only on Chelsea Football Club, but English football.
Gronkjaer's goal proved the match winner and therefore secured fourth place and a spot in the Champions League for Claudio Ranieri's side. Liverpool, managed by Gerard Houllier, finished three points behind.
"Deprived of transfer funds, Claudio Ranieri was forced to seek improvement from the existing squad," wrote that same report in the Telegraph. These were very different times.
The match was effectively a Champions League play-off, but it transpired to be much, much more important than that. As explained by Mark Fleming in the Independent in 2011:
It was dubbed the £20m match, but that was a drop in the ocean compared with what it proved to be worth to Chelsea as within weeks Roman Abramovich had swept in on his white charger to buy the club for £140m. Eight years on, and his outlay is close to £1bn.
But had Liverpool won on that spring day, who knows what might have happened? Abramovich would almost certainly have taken his roubles elsewhere, and Chelsea could have suffered a similar fate to Leeds, or possibly worse, as they were facing financial oblivion at the time.
Abramovich's arrival at Chelsea changed English football forever. In the space of just 47 days, the London club spent a staggering £103 million—an unprecedented amount back in 2003. The Russian funded another £93 million shopping spree the following summer, when also appointing Jose Mourinho as manager.
As explained in a new book by author Simon Hughes, 'Ring of Fire: Liverpool FC into the 21st Century', Abramovich's arrival was as transformative in English football as Sky's introduction to the Premier League back in 1992.
It was also the reason Liverpool's long-term owner David Moores decided he had to sell the club in order for the Merseysiders to compete with the Russian's millions. The Moores family had owned Liverpool for more than 50 years before they eventually sold to George Gillett and Tom Hicks in February 2007, four years after Abramovich bought Chelsea and had won back-to-back league titles in 2005 and 2006.
The decision to sell was made within a year of Abramovich's arrival. As explained by then Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry, telling Hughes: "He [Moores] was really concerned by Abramovich coming in and all the money Chelsea were spending. David didn't want to hold back. So in 2004, he decided it was necessary to make a change."
Mourinho vs. Benitez
That summer saw Houllier depart Anfield and Rafael Benitez was appointed, creating an almighty rivalry between the two clubs and their respective new managers.
The two Iberian managers challenged the English top flight, adding tactical nous both domestically and in Europe, creating a new top four between Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United. Benitez and Mourinho were new challengers for stalwarts Arsene Wenger and Alex Ferguson. The tactical level of the Premier League was elevated almost overnight.
That first season, 2004/05, saw Mourinho get the better of Benitez in the League Cup final in Cardiff, but Benitez gained revenge with the Champions League semi-final victory two months later. Mourinho's shushing of the Liverpool fans in Cardiff and his continued bitterness about Luis Garcia's so-called ghost goal at Anfield, kickstarted the rivalry between the two clubs.
The two sides were then drawn together in the Champions League group stage the following season, then the FA Cup semi-final—where Benitez again won the battle with a 2-1 win at Old Trafford.
The following season then kicked off with Liverpool winning the Community Shield against Mourinho's side and ended with Liverpool again beating Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final.
Chelsea may have won the league title, but Mourinho couldn't beat Benitez in the cup matches.
Finally Mourinho enjoyed success in 2007/08, beating Liverpool in the League Cup fifth round and, at the third time of trying, in the Champions League semi-final.
The 2008/09 campaign saw the Reds and Blues meet in the Champions League at the quarter-final stage this time, with Chelsea progressing again.
Incredibly, the two sides played each other 24 times in the five years Mourinho and Benitez were both in charge of the two sides. Competing so regularly in huge games—semi-finals and finals—really created the rivalry on the pitch and in the stands.
The Gerrard factor
Another big factor in the rivalry was Steven Gerrard. Aside from Mourinho's obsession with Garcia's goal—where the Portuguese strangely ignores the fact the alternative would have seen Petr Cech sent off and the Reds with a penalty after just two minutes—the Chelsea boss was also quite obsessed with the Liverpool captain.
"Steven Gerrard is for sure one of my favourite enemies - an enemy with all the good feeling I can express with that word in football," said Mourinho in 2015.
The manager attempted to sign Gerrard while at Stamford Bridge and then again when in charge at Inter Milan and Real Madrid.
Gerrard though almost did sign for Mourinho and Chelsea in the summer of 2005, when the midfielder even handed in a transfer request after becoming bewildered by Liverpool's slow offer of a new contract in the aftermath of Istanbul.
Sachin Nakrani of the Guardian explains how "Gerrard claims he never really wanted to swap Anfield for Stamford Bridge and the transfer request was a means of forcing Liverpool to show their love for him."
The whole saga added fuel to the fire that was the emerging rivalry between the two sides.
Torres swaps sides
Fast forward to 2011 and Chelsea did finally lure one of Anfield's star players south, with £50 million proving too much for Liverpool to turn down for Fernando Torres.
Having seen Benitez, Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano depart, Liverpool fans saw Torres' departure as a crushing blow. That he had joined Chelsea rubbed salt further into the wounds.
Explaining his side of his departure in Hughes' 'Ring of Fire', Torres admits "I was not happy, I was not angry, I was empty. I was so happy there, so, so happy..."
When Torres lined up for his Chelsea debut against Liverpool on February 6, 2011, Reds fans held flags denouncing him as a traitor. The Spaniard looked like a player forced to wear blue against his desire.
When Daniel Agger clattered into Torres in the opening minutes of the game, his forearm laying down a marker and leaving his former team-mate floored, it set the tone for Torres' Chelsea career.
Three years later and Torres was part of the Chelsea team that arrived at Anfield with Liverpool pushing for the title. Mourinho's side parked the bus, with the Portuguese trying all his antics on the day. Gerrard mis-controlled Mamadou Sakho's pass and let in Demba Ba. The league title was effectively lost in that moment.
Torres says it was "the toughest day... I felt so sorry for Stevie and Liverpool... It was so hard seeing the people in the stands. I still feel the same way for them. No matter what has happened, I still love them."
It was yet another dramatic chapter in the Liverpool-Chelsea-Mourinho-Gerrard rivalry.
Hillsborough
There are other, more sinister, reasons for the rivalry taking on a more toxic element too. Primarily in the aftermath of the FA Cup final at Wembley in 2012, when Chelsea supporters were incapable of staying silent during a minute's silence to mark the 23rd anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.
"A section of the Chelsea FC supporters jeered and booed, forcing the referee to abandon the tribute to the 96 victims after just 25 seconds," reported the Daily Mail.
"Millions of TV viewers and radio listeners heard the tasteless chants of ‘murderers’."
Benitez at the Bridge
Then there's the Chelsea fans' treatment of Benitez when he was appointed their interim manager in 2012. In his first game in charge, Benitez was jeered and 'Rafa Out' signs were held up (some on iPads just to show the bizarre world of a Chelsea supporter).
Benitez guided Chelsea to a third-place finish and won the Europa League but received little thanks from their supporters at a time when many on Merseyside would have welcomed him back at Anfield with open arms.
2016
In 2016, with the key characters of Mourinho, Benitez, Gerrard and Torres now all moved on to pastures new, the rivalry feels a little less intense. Perhaps too because there have been no games of such magnitude and intensity as European semi-finals between the two recently.
But with Jurgen Klopp in charge, Liverpool now look set to challenge again for the major honours. With Antonio Conte similarly passionate and animated on the touchline, we could see a new managerial rivalry emerge just like that of Benitez and Mourinho during the 00s.
The Chelsea-Liverpool rivalry emerged quickly, and the touch paper could be lit just as quickly again.