Jürgen Klopp hails Liverpool’s character after holding off Chelsea

Jürgen Klopp praised his side’s character after Liverpool restored their five-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the Premier League with a resilient victory over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Trent Alexander-Arnold and Roberto Firmino gave Liverpool a 2-0 lead during the first half and although N’Golo Kante halved the deficit with 19 minutes remaining, Klopp’s side held on despite clinging on for much of the second half.

“I shouldn’t be surprised about the character of my team any more,” Liverpool’s manager said. “We don’t say every day: ‘Oh my God, your character is great.’ We expect to fight for everything. We have a big job to do in a really difficult league. Everybody thinks we should be first or second, so we have to play the football for it.

“We just play football to win games. Without character life is difficult but football is impossible, The boys fought really hard. There is no other way to win here. It’s a big one.”

Liverpool, who have won their first six league games, were under pressure following City’s 8-0 victory over Watford 24 hours earlier. “I really think they are the best team in the world,” Klopp said. “I don’t want to put pressure on Pep but they are brilliant in moments.

“We are not bad as well. I still don’t see that in the end it is only two teams. We talk about the championship with 32 games to go. That’s a bit early.”

Liverpool, who will assess Sadio Mané after the forward suffered a knock, won only one away game against their big six rivals last season. “We reacted well, adapted well to different situations and I think we were deserved winners today,” Klopp said.

Frank Lampard was frustrated after Chelsea were left with nothing to show for a fine effort. His side have conceded 13 goals already, lie in 11th place and are yet to win a home game this season.

“It’s definitely a concern,” Lampard said. “The difference between us and Liverpool is that we aren’t consistently as good as them and Manchester City. The home win will come. Hopefully it comes very soon and it will bring confidence to everybody but we need to aspire to a level like Liverpool when they probably don’t play their best but