Houllier said: "I don't accept that. I think we deserve it more than any other team. There are two reasons for this. We have had to play 12 European games and we've also had the good campaign in the Worthington Cup.
"There have been times when we have had to fight back from the depths of despair when we played well and we were unlucky.
"We've created so many chances so you cannot say our strikers have not had service. Sometimes we have just not had the finish we have deserved, but we are fighting until the very end.
"No team in the Premiership will have earned a place in the Champions League more than us. I mean it. We have shown our mental strength."
The undeniable truth, of course, is that Houllier's talk of deserving a Champions League place can be proved in only one way - victory at Stamford Bridge.