5 Top Attacking Talents to Play for Chelsea and Liverpool
After a 1-1 draw at Anfield last Tuesday, it's all to play for at Stamford Bridge and promises to be one of the most enthralling matches of the season so far.
Whether they like it or not, Chelsea fans and their Liverpool counterparts share a lot more in common than just the fixture list, though.
Throughout the years, they have shared players, coaches and, in more recent times, managers, after Rafa Benitez spent seven months at Stamford Bridge in 2012/13.
There has been some fine attacking talent to don the famous blue and red jerseys, too. Some of those players have enjoyed success with both clubs, while others have hit form at just Chelsea or Liverpool.
Either way, they've excited fans in one way or another.
Bleacher Report takes a look at five of them, from the 1960s to the modern era.
David Speedie
1 of 5Signing for Chelsea in 1982, David Speedie was part of a Chelsea team that very nearly won the won the First Division in 1985.
A few years earlier, though, he had played an integral role in helping the club avoid the drop from Division Two.
He was part of a three-pronged attack that also included Pat Nevin and Kerry Dixon, with the deadly trio proving a major positive for Chelsea as they looked to move away from years of uncertainty brought on by financial strife in the 1970s and 1980s.
Speedie scored the first Wembley hat-trick since Geoff Hurst's World Cup final exploits in 1966 when he scored three times against Manchester City in the 1985 Full Members Cup final, a game Chelsea won, 5-4.
He later joined Coventry in 1987 before moving to Anfield in 1991, but his time with Liverpool was short-lived, lasting just a year.
Speedie scored on his debut against Manchester United, but when Kenny Dalglish left the Reds, replaced by Graeme Souness, Speedie was soon offloaded.
The YouTube clips above shows Speedie scoring for Chelsea against Liverpool in the fourth round of the FA Cup in 1986.
Fernando Torres
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Fernando Torres was a god on Merseyside but not so much when he moved to Chelsea.
When El Nino signed for Liverpool from Atletico Madrid in 2007, he hit the ground running, forming an instant understanding with Steven Gerrard that brought goals and plenty more with it.
Liverpool were suddenly a threat again, and Torres was the linchpin of their attack.
He scored 65 goals in just 102 Premier League games.
When he moved to Chelsea for £50 million in January 2011, he was supposed to do the same in west London, but for one reason or another, Torres couldn't find his goalscoring form.
It became painful to watch as one of the one world's most feared strikers struggled to find the back of the net on a weekly basis.
It was torture, almost.
Torres eventually left Chelsea for AC Milan last summer, making his loan move permanent this January. In a complicated deal, he then joined his boyhood club Atletico Madrid on loan.
He struggled at Chelsea, but there's no doubting Torres' brilliance when he was at Liverpool.
Tony Hateley
3 of 5When Peter Osgood broke his leg in 1966, Chelsea were in trouble and needed a new striker.
So they signed Tony Hateley from Aston Villa for a then-club-record £100,000.
Hateley was a brutal force in attack, but moving to a side like Chelsea, who were better known for playing attractive football—Hateley's game was based more on his aerial threat—he struggled to make the impact that saw manager Tommy Docherty so eager to bring him to Stamford Bridge.
Within a year, Hateley was moving on, joining Liverpool.
Bill Shankly paid Chelsea £96,000 for Hateley's services—another club record.
The Reds got far more out of Hateley, who scored 27 goals in his debut campaign at Anfield.
That said, he was soon sold to Coventry, though, as Shankly looked to build his team in a different mould to what Hateley suited.
Hateley can be seen spearheading the Chelsea attack against Liverpool on Christmas Eve 1966 in the above YouTube clip.
Daniel Sturridge
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You get the feeling that had Daniel Sturridge been given a proper crack at leading the line for Chelsea, he would have succeeded.
Instead, it's Liverpool benefiting from his talents.
Sturridge's absence through injury this season has outlined his talent and how vital he has been to Liverpool's recent resurgence under manager Brendan Rodgers.
Playing under three different managers at Chelsea—Carlo Ancelotti, Andre Villas-Boas and Roberto Di Matteo—Sturridge scored 13 goals in 63 Premier League appearances, the majority coming from the bench.
He was still developing as a player, though, and a loan spell with Bolton Wanderers in 2011—when Sturridge scored eight goals in 12 games—showed the talent he was.
Costing just £12 million two years ago this month, Liverpool invested well, and it seems he's certain to achieve much more than he already has on Merseyside.
Nicolas Anelka
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After bursting onto the scene with Arsenal, when Nicolas Anelka joined Real Madrid in 1999, it was the last English football expected to see of him.
It wasn't, though, and after just three seasons, he was back in the Premier League, joining Liverpool on loan from Paris Saint-Germain.
Anelka's Madrid move went belly up, and he returned to Ligue 1 to rebuild his career.
He impressed at Liverpool, too, with manager Gerard Houllier expected to make his move permanent. Somewhere, things went awry with that deal, however. Liverpool pulled out, and he joined Manchester City—a club far from the behemoth we know today.
Joining Chelsea for £15 million from Bolton Wanderers in 2008, Anelka made a significant impression at Stamford Bridge.
He was part of the FA Cup-winning teams of 2009 and 2010, also sealing his second Premier League and cup double in the same year (he also did the same with Arsenal in 1998).
Garry Hayes is Bleacher Report's lead Chelsea correspondent. All quotes were obtained firsthand unless otherwise noted. Follow him on Twitter @garryhayes
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