The Anfield trophy room boasts the European Cup but the bragging rights do not stop there. "We can beat Chelsea," the Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez remarked. "We did it last season and we know how to do it."
Benitez faces Chelsea again at Anfield this evening before a Premiership meeting between the sides at the same ground on Sunday. Mourinho never turns his back on a rivalry. "They also know how to lose," he said, spurning the idea that Liverpool have a hex over his team. "We are beating them 3-1," he added, counting the fixtures that ended in a win for either side last season.
The manager thrives on the animosity shown towards his club by those who feel they have too much cash in the bank, too many wins on their record. "It is the world against Chelsea," he claimed. "Everyone wants us to lose apart from the Kings Road, Fulham Road and 50,000 people in (his hometown) Setubal."
Despite the showmanship, Mourinho followed Benitez in beating back any idea that tonight's group game can be a restaging of last season's cathartic semi-final. The Spaniard merely recalled with a hint of mischief the 1-0 win achieved by Luis Garcia's disputed winner. "My secretary Sheila said to me, 'I was at the byline and it was a goal'," Benitez reported.
"They beat Chelsea, but they did not score," Mourinho argued. There is no antagonism between the managers. The Portuguese, however, denies that Liverpool were the best team in Europe last season and proposed instead that Barcelona were, despite being eliminated by Chelsea, because of their "beautiful football".
Benitez was even more relaxed. Like Chelsea, Liverpool started Group G with a win and he may be in accord with Mourinho in feeling that even a defeat tonight would "not be a disaster". Each of them could genuinely give the weekend game a higher priority. "We are in a very good situation," the Chelsea manager said after seven straight league wins. "They aren't. If they lose on Sunday that's it finished for them."
The sparring between the two men is, all the same, gentle. "I like him very much if his success does not interfere with my success," Mourinho said of Benitez, knowing they each have a similar haul of trophies.
None of the defeats in their clashes last season was by a margin of more than a single goal. Liverpool already symbolise resistance to Chelsea in several respects. At the last gasp, they proved that money does not always equal destiny when Steven Gerrard was persuaded to decline a transfer to Stamford Bridge.
It is one of the riveting subplots that the Liverpool captain will tonight aim to bring about Chelsea's downfall while pitting himself against Michael Essien, the powerhouse whom Mourinho signed instead.
Elsewhere, on current form Didier Drogba deserves to be picked but it is impossible to forget that Hernan Crespo, then on loan to AC Milan, scored two of the Italian side's three goals in Istanbul.
With a smaller squad, Benitez may miss the injured Mohamed Sissoko and Fernando Morientes more than Mourinho does Asier del Horno. It will once more be difficult to disentangle these sides, but if Chelsea are in form they should win narrowly.
