Peeved Brendan Rodgers has strongly refuted Steven Gerrard's claim that he expected Liverpool to "blow Chelsea away" before that title miscue in 2014.
The current Rangers boss bared his soul after retiring and addressed the fateful day when his slip against the Blues set up Demba Ba as the visitors secured a 2-0 win and gave Manchester City new life in the title race.
And he insisted Rodgers' pre-match instructions played right into the big-spending Londoners' hands.
Gerrard speaking in his 2016 autobiography, confessed: “I’ve never been able to say this in public before but I was seriously concerned that we thought we could blow Chelsea away.
"I sensed an overconfidence in Brendan’s team talks. We played into Chelsea’s hands. I feared it then and I know it now.”
But Rodgers rejects the notion that was his pre-match message on the day Jose Mourinho's side left Liverpool fans crestfallen when asked about his rallying cry.
Speaking to the The Beautiful Game podcast, he said: "Firstly, I didn't say that. That was something that I didn't say.
"The game against Chelsea, when you think on it, coming off the back of winning 11 games on the spin, so nothing changes
"Why would we change? I talked up about the emotion, it was really building at that stage, we hadn't lost at home, for us it was 'let's go a and play the game we have all year, impose our way into the game.'
"But we knew it was going to be a difficult game, for 70 minutes of the game, take away Demba Ba's goal, we actually played well.
"We had chances to score, but couldn't score, but then our inexperience of being in that position became difficult for us.
"But I certainly didn't go out and say to blow them away, that was never, ever the instruction.
"It was go and play our game which was go and impose our way and it was just unfortunate what happened on the day."
The pair renewed acquaintances in Glasgow as they battled as Celtic and Rangers managers respectively before the 48-year-old left Parkhead for Leicester in February 2019.
