On Sunday January 11th of this year Chelsea traveled to play Manchester United at Old Trafford in the Premier League. By early evening Chelsea had been taken apart in a manner not seen for many a season.

The final score may have been 3-0 to United but the score line flattered Chelsea so resounding was the home team’s performance.

It was to be a game that marked the beginning of the end for Chelsea boss Luis Felipe Scolari. Chelsea struggled to beat Stoke the week after – needing two late goals from Belletti and Lampard – before another less than impressive display in dispatching relegation bound Middlesbrough.

A 2-0 loss to Liverpool at Anfield made a parting of the ways close to inevitable while a scoreless draw at home to struggling Hull City sealed the Brazilian’s

Two teams that should know each other inside out go at it again this weekend. Liverpool and Chelsea have faced each other twenty-four times in the last five years and they have in the process built a rivalry that just didn’t exist during the first ninety-six years of competition.

With Chelsea emerging as an English powerhouse in the middle of this decade an uptick in games against the likes of Liverpool, Arsenal and Manchester United would have been expected.  

But the sheer scope of the rash of Chelsea – Liverpool meetings dwarfs the others by a considerable margin. Over the same period Chelsea has played Arsenal 13 times and Manchester United 15 times so it is difficult to put the greater frequency down to anything else except the luck of the draw.  

Over the five