ColumnIn full: Read Jürgen Klopp's Chelsea programme notes

"Ever since I have been in England – and clearly for much longer than that – the games that we have had against Chelsea have only ever been hugely competitive, a proper fight I would say, so it makes sense that we should not expect anything different tonight," writes the boss.

"It is obvious to anyone who has been paying attention that Chelsea are a team which is very much in the clear improvement stage of their development cycle under Mauricio Pochettino, a manager and a person who I could not have more respect for but also someone, like anyone else, was going to need time to reach this point with what is effectively a new team.

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"The fact that he has reached a final in his first season in charge speaks volumes and we look forward to meeting Chelsea at Wembley next month but, at the same time, we know that they are an opponent with so much quality and so much room to become even better. We will need to be on our toes in both games, I will put it like this.

"Mauricio was actually my first managerial opponent in the Premier League and of course we met in the Champions League final in 2019 and in my experience he has always done a brilliant job. He is also a great guy left and right of the games that we play against one another so I am looking forward to seeing him tonight and welcoming him and his staff to Anfield.

"For us, Chelsea at home is another hurdle to try to clear, another challenge to look to overcome. The last one was Norwich on Sunday and there was so much to like about our performance so it would make sense if we could take the positives from that game into this one and maybe even find some new ones.

"It was also another good day for our Academy. I could talk for hours about the young players that we have in and around the team right now and the many others who people outside of Liverpool may not know too much about but who we could not be more aware of. The situation that we have right now is very healthy and it speaks to the incredible work that is being done in youth development at LFC.

"It is clear that the Academy is in a very good moment and the young players who are impressing everyone are a credit to them. I said after Sunday that we would not be where we are as a team right now without these boys and that is absolutely true. Now we have some of the big guns back as well. It is a really good situation, especially with the amount of games we have coming up in four competitions.

"Finally, my programme notes for the Norwich game were complete before my decision to leave at the end of this season was made public so, although this is not an issue that I want to keep on talking about, it is right that I mention it here. Everyone has seen my reasons by now so hopefully they have been accepted but it is important that I reiterate that nothing will change between now and the end of my time here.

"My foot is still very much on the gas and it will be until the final minute of my final game. In the way they have acted, spoken and, most importantly, trained and played, the players are in exactly the same mindset so, as I've said, nothing changes. Our ambitions, standards and beliefs are no different.

"We know what we want and we know how hard we will have to work to achieve it. I – and we – could not be more in this season, I will put it like this.

"Finally, I would like to thank you for the support I was given on Sunday but at the same time I have another request. Tonight we need a proper Anfield atmosphere.

"This is definitely an occasion to forget that the manager is leaving at the end of the season and to do everything that we can as a collective to make it as uncomfortable as we possibly can for a really strong opponent. If we can do this together, we will definitely create an opportunity to take another step forward."

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