After Liverpool beat Chelsea 5-3 in their thrilling match at Anfield last season, tensions between the two managers ran high as Frank Lampard warned Jurgen Klopp and his staff not to get 'too arrogant' with the celebrations.
In his post-match interview, the Chelsea boss asked the new champions not to get carried away with their success.
"For me, it wasn't a foul from Kovacic, and there were a lot of things that weren't going our way. But I've not got a problem with Jurgen Klopp. The way he's managed this team has been fantastic.
"Some of the bench, it's a fine line when you're winning. They've won the league, fair play to Liverpool Football Club, they've won the league, but also don't get too arrogant with it. That was my point, but it's done. In match play, you can get emotional and that was it," he said.
Since then, the Chelsea boss has elaborated on the touchline row and with the two set to meet again at Stamford Bridge this weekend, an apparent war of words and rivalry was reopened following Klopp's recent comments about transfer activity, remarks that Lampard responded to.
Granted, what Klopp said was prior to the arrivals of Thiago and the expected signing of Diogo Jota from Wolves, but the German said that Manchester City and Chelsea were more immune to the financial effects of the coronavirus pandemic due to being "owned by countries, owned by oligarchs" and added that Liverpool "are a different kind of club" from them - a comment that Lampard found "amusing."
Speaking ahead of this weekend's game, Klopp sat down with Sky Sports and played down the rivalry with Lampard.
After claiming that his message was misinterpreted by the media before being redirected to Lampard, Klopp said:
"I spoke about the actual time - the COVID time - when some clubs have more problems than other clubs. And he (Lamaprd) then mentioned the signings I made since I'm here, or maybe even earlier? I never said we will not sign players, or we don't sign players. I know that we did that - it was about this moment, but obviously nobody is really interested in the fact that people are just creating a story.
Between Frank and me, there's absolutely nothing. I admired him a lot as a player and know he's doing a really good job as a coach and I can't help you now with creating some rivalry between us. We'll be rivals on Sunday but apart from that, it's all good.
When Klopp is reminded of his comment that Liverpool are a different sort of club, the German states:
We are, we are. Liverpool is a different kind of club, we're lead in a different way. That's just the way and how it is. It's not a surprise that the way FSG are leading us is that we invest what we earn. Sometimes, we invest before we earn but it's still based on what we will earn. Stuff like this is completely normal and it's not like this in other clubs, for reasons that you know. I'm fine whatever they do (other clubs), I'm completely fine but the only thing what I don't like is when I get asked 'can you do the same?' and you know the reason why I can't"
Jurgen Klopp has played down any rivalry with Frank Lampard - and has no issue with clubs spending money to improve
📺 Watch Chelsea v Liverpool live on Super Sundaypic.twitter.com/jvql9oyYJB— Sky Sports (@SkySports) September 17, 2020
