The Blues were instrumental in denying Brendan Rodger’s Liverpool their first league title since 1990 with a 2-0 win at Anfield. Steven Gerrard famously slipped in that game and Chelsea capitalised, a performance Rodgers described as ‘parking two buses’ in front of goal. The Reds boss also claimed that it wasn’t difficult to coach a team to defend behind the ball in numbers.

The Premier League heavyweights meet again on the weekend and this time it is Chelsea who are top of the table and favourites to win. Liverpool are still reeling without Luiz Suarez and it will be interesting to see the side Rodgers sends out after choosing a weakened team away to Real Madrid in midweek.

Nonetheless, Matic has laid into Liverpool fans for their woeful defending. According to the Daily Mail, he said, “Nobody’s happy when you lose a game and they weren’t happy after that game. Many teams have tried to park the bus in front of the goal against us, but we win. It’s not easy. If you defend you have to know how to defend. It was 2-0. We showed we have quality.”

He added, “It is a different story [this season]. We are ready. We are first and we want to stay there. We will play a different way and I’m very happy because we will play one big game on Saturday.”