[lfc-news] Stunning Chelsea in a league of their own

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Stunning Chelsea in a league of their own

Kevin McCarra at Anfield
Monday October 3, 2005
The Guardian

Managers can snipe and disagree but only a football team itself can settle
an argument. Chelsea left no room at all for bickering yesterday and barely
allowed Liverpool a speaking part on their own Anfield stage. Rafael
Benítez, manager of the losers here, has talked freely about the defects in
his side but surely can never have guessed that they would be exposed so
brutally.
He was unable to sign a midfielder for the right flank or, crucially in
this match, a new centre-half. Didier Drogba, with no one to check him,
went on a rampage that strewed four goals for others in its wake and he was
never as isolated as he had been last Wednesday in the 0-0 draw in the
Champions League.

Chelsea poured greater energy into this game and they will probably
exercise themselves as strenuously to deny that there was any malice behind
their attitude. Nonetheless they performed like men who were seething over
the suggestion that Liverpool, their nemesis in the European Cup semi-final
in May, do have some sort of hold of them. Benítez's team had no grip at
all on this fixture.
After the interval expert counter-attackers ransacked Liverpool on the
break. It was the club's worst result at home since Manchester United
trounced them by the same margin in December 1969. The Anfield side are now
17 points behind Chelsea, although they do have two games in hand. In all
likelihood they may not be much worse than any of the supposed challengers
and the reigning champions already have a nine-point lead in the Premiership.

This match had a different character from Wednesday's encounter from the
start. Chelsea had clearly resolved not to concede territory as they had
then and the midfield engaged with Liverpool early and often. Michael
Essien, somewhat bemused in the Champions League fixture, left others in a
daze with his bulldozer tackling.

While Peter Crouch had some telling moments, such as the chest control and
flick that bamboozled Ricardo Carvalho before he lashed over in the 73rd
minute, he was usually isolated. It appeared that only Steven Gerrard could
be counted upon to put pressure on Chelsea and, with so little assistance,
he eventually wearied.

Events were going far too well for Chelsea to get tired and Drogba, in
particular, has a boundless power. Djimi Traoré, with a lapse into the
waywardness that Benítez must have thought had been purged, hit a clearance
at the Ivory Coast forward and then, in a folly spawned by his panic,
lunged into a tackle that brought down Drogba inside the penalty area.

Jamie Carragher, disregarding the fellowship of men who will meet up in the
England squad on Tuesday, yapped at Frank Lampard but did not prevent the
midfielder from converting the spot-kick with a finish that went under the
torso of the diving José Reina.

For all their endeavour it was still a surprise that Liverpool should
equalise nine minutes later. Carragher flicked on a John Arne Riise corner
and Gerrard rifled home a drive from a tight angle on the right. The
Chelsea left-back Asier del Horno instinctively turned away as Liverpool's
captain let fly but he can revel in the recollection of most other
incidents that involved him.

It was the Spaniard's header down the left, two minutes from the interval,
that triggered the move that cracked the match open. Drogba pounced, beat
the struggling Sami Hyypia with a turn and neat touch before laying the
ball back to Damien Duff. Reina hesitated and the Irishman controlled
before finishing a second before Xabi Alonso could challenge.

The game continued to be heated but a desperate Liverpool made all the
mistakes. In the 63rd minute Del Horno dispossesed Luis García to release
Drogba and the latter stubbed the ball into the goalmouth where Joe Cole
waited to score. Eight minutes from the end, to the ignominy of Liverpool
and the inattentive Steve Finnan, the Chelsea left-back released Drogba
with a mere throw-in. One substitute, Arjen Robben, failed to connect
properly with the cut-back but the other, Geremi, did not.

The dream of parity with Chelsea, which Benítez has maintained so
resourcefully, had vanished. The Liverpool manager is left with a rather
cold reality. Those shortcomings that he recognises cannot always be borne
and the suspicions grow that he did require another striker far more than
he would concede when the club was engaged in its attempt to re-sign the
unaffordable Michael Owen.

Liverpool cannot compete for the league unless there are improvements to
the squad and they will depend for glory on the defence, with all its
obvious hazards, of the European Cup. By contrast Paulo Ferreira and Shaun
Wright-Phillips did not even make Jose Mourinho's squad here. This was
Chelsea's biggest win at Anfield since 1907 but, if the club's history has
had long lacklustre passages, the future looks spellbinding.

Man of the match: Didier Drogba (Chelsea)

FA Premiership
Sunday October 02, 2005
FT Liverpool 1-4 Chelsea
10' Cole
27' 0-1 Lampard (penalty)
28' Lampard
36' Gerrard 1-1
43' 1-2 Duff
53' Drogba
53' Carragher
63' 1-3 Cole
82' 1-4 Geremi
Liverpool
Jose Manuel Reina, Jamie Carragher, Steve Finnan, Sami Hyypia (Florent
Sinama Pongolle), Djimi Traore (Djibril Cisse), Xabi Alonso, Steven
Gerrard, Dietmar Hamann (Mohamed Sissoko), Javier Sanz Luis Garcia, John
Arne Riise, Peter Crouch

Chelsea
Petr Cech, Ricardo Carvalho, William Gallas, John Terry, Asier del Horno
(Robert Huth), Joe Cole (Arjen Robben), Damien Duff (Ndjitap Geremi),
Michael Essien, Frank Lampard, Claude Makelele, Didier Drogba

Referee: Poll, G

Venue: Anfield

Attendance: 44,235

Corners:
Liverpool 4
Chelsea 2

Goal Attempts:
Liverpool 11
Chelsea 8

On Target:
Liverpool 5
Chelsea 6

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