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Relentless Chelsea keep up pressure on the top with win over Liverpool Relentless Chelsea keep up pressure on the top with win over Liverpool
(about 3 hours later)
Chelsea will hope this was the thunderous occasion when conviction was injected into their title challenge. Liverpool, so impressive to date this term, were beaten for only the second time in seven league visits to this corner of south-west London with José Mourinho ending the contest arms aloft and beseeching the home support to propel his team over the line. José Mourinho had turned to the East stand as this contest lurched towards its conclusion and, arms aloft, beseeched the home support to whip up one last roar to haul the team over the line. Within seconds his gesture was repeated in celebration. Liverpool, one of the more eye-catching contenders in this season's title race, had been beaten to inject proper conviction into Chelsea's own challenge. The Portuguese's reaction betrayed the significance of the result.
The Portuguese's reaction betrayed raw emotion. Edging four points clear of their visitors, while remaining still two shy of the summit, felt significant as edginess crept in late on and Luis Suárez's penalty appeal was waved away. There was an irony that it was a Chelsea forward rather than the Uruguayan who would settle the contest, given the hosts' toils up front this season. The Londoners will take heart from that, too, while Liverpool lick their wounds. The first chink of light has been spotted between the top three and the chasing pack, a three-point gap chiselled out between Mourinho's team and fourth-placed Everton to suggest a massed scramble towards the summit is thinning out. Liverpool, a point behind their Merseyside neighbours, will hope to come again and can draw real encouragement from their displays even in defeat at the Etihad and Stamford Bridge but those at the top will likewise hope they are shrugging themselves clear. "A big win, a big opponent, a big match," said Mourinho. It was the kind of contest to get the juices flowing.
After those searing victories over Tottenham Hotspur and Cardiff, and confirmation of Suárez's contract extension, the Christmas period has proved rather sobering for Brendan Rodgers. His team may have performed well both at Manchester City and here in daunting away fixtures, but the first successive league defeats of his tenure have left them entering the new year outside the Champions League places and trailing Everton. They had lost Joe Allen to a groin injury and Mamadou Sakho to a pinged hamstring before the end, wounds which will hamper their attempts to muster an immediate backlash. In the end, perhaps inevitably, it was also laced with controversy. Brendan Rodgers had reason to denounce Samuel Eto'o's first-minute foul on Jordan Henderson, the striker raking his studs down his opponent's right shin and escaping a card of any sort from Howard Webb. Though Liverpool scored from the free-kick that followed, they would have been taking on 10 men for 89 minutes had the offence been properly penalised. Their other gripe centred, inevitably, on Luis Suárez as Eto'o appeared to shoulder barge him off the ball and inside the penalty area seven minutes from time. Rodgers and Mourinho, once apprentice and mentor in these surroundings, could only agree to disagree, though in the circumstances it was perhaps inevitable that Eto'o's contribution would ultimately be remembered for the winner.
In the context of much of what was to come, it seemed strange to consider that the visitors' breakneck start had rather caught Chelsea cold, a flustered Samuel Eto'o raking his studs down Jordan Henderson's right shin in the opening minute. From the resultant free-kick, Liverpool led. Philippe Coutinho's delivery towards the near-post was vicious, Suárez and Branislav Ivanovic – those familiar foes from Anfield in April – tumbling as they wrestled to connect, with the ball striking the Serb and wrong-footing Petr Cech in the process. Martin Skrtel, alone in front of a gaping goal, could not believe his luck. Chelsea had their own non-award to bemoan, Lucas Leiva appearing to floor the live-wire Eden Hazard 11 minutes in, yet the revival of the old Mourinho versus Merseyside rivalry should not boil down to perceived oversights by the overworked referee. This was combustible, breathless and blisteringly competitive and therefore enthralling to behold.
That should have proved the springboard for Rodgers' team, an advantage to which they could cling and seek to prosper on the counter-attack. Yet it merely served to shrug the hosts from their initial slumbers. They had transformed the occasion by the interval, their forays forward slick and conducted at rare pace as Eden Hazard, watched by his brother Thorgan from the stands, Oscar and Willian tore into a back-line that can, at times, feel cumbersome. There had been warning signs before parity was restored, Simon Mignolet saving well from Hazard and brilliantly from Frank Lampard, though the Belgian's luck ran out. While Liverpool seemed stretched by cruel successive away fixtures, Chelsea arguably mustered some of their finest attacking football of the campaign through that ferocious opening period. Their forays forward were slick and conducted at pace, Oscar and Willian rapid in pouring upfield while Hazard, the team's player of the moment, orchestrated it all.
It was his compatriot who benefited. Hazard sparked the move that yielded Chelsea's first, shifting the ball from central midfield to Willian before Oscar took up possession and bolted into enemy territory. Liverpool defenders backed off, uncertain and increasingly panicked, with the Brazilian's intended pass for Eto'o rebounding from Sakho and back across the edge of the area. Hazard, his run unchecked, dispatched it first time, all whip and bend, with Mignolet helpless and beaten. The Belgian, watched here by his brother Thorgan in the stands, has been untouchable in recent weeks. He has learned from the error of his ways after missing a training session following a brief trip back to Lille to watch his former club – it did not help that he had mislaid his passport in France – and has been resurgent since. He started the move which created Chelsea's equaliser, shifting the ball from central midfield to Willian before Oscar took up possession and bolted into enemy territory. Liverpool defenders backed off, uncertain and panicked, with the Brazilian's intended pass for Eto'o rebounding from Mamadou Sakho and back across the edge of the area.
It was Hazard's 10th goal in all competitions this season, a tally that has eased some of the pressure on Chelsea's blunt strikers, though even one of their number would prosper here. The furious contest had burst beyond the half-hour mark when David Luiz – employed in central midfield – and Cesar Azpilicueta combined for Oscar to gather, his initial touch appearing to strike Sakho's arm. The crowd's appeals for handball went ignored, the playmaker regathering and turning the French centre-half to square for Eto'o, granted too much space by Skrtel, to stretch and convert through Mignolet. On that occasion, as at the Etihad stadium with Alvaro Negredo's second, the goalkeeper should have done better. Hazard, his run unchecked, dispatched it first time, all whip and bend, with Simon Mignolet helpless and beaten. "The kid is changing," said Mourinho of the £32m signing he inherited. "Before he was a very talented player but was a bit … not lazy, but a kid enjoying football just in a funny way. Now he understands responsibilities and that football is not just about getting the ball and playing like he did when he was 13 or 14 in the street. There are other ingredients needed at this level."
He would redeem himself in part by denying Eto'o a second with his shoulder after Sakho's rush of blood. Yet Liverpool had desperately needed a response, their own attacking play having rather petered out after that initial charge for all that Allen did force Cech to save a shot spat at the diagonal. There was more urgency after the interval, Henderson clipping a centre cleverly into the area where Sakho, in between the recently arrived substitute John Mikel Obi and Oscar, looped a header on to the crossbar. That was his 10th goal in all competitions this season, a tally that has eased some of the pressure on Chelsea's blunt strikers, though this would eventually be decided by one of their number. David Luiz and César Azpilicueta combined for Oscar to gather, his initial touch appearing to strike Sakho's arm. The crowd's appeals for handball went ignored, the playmaker regathering and turning the centre-half to square for Eto'o, granted too much space by Martin Skrtel, to convert. Mignolet should have done better.
Their pressure was menacing thereafter, Glen Johnson forcing Cech to turn away a skimmed attempt from distance, even if Chelsea pressed feverishly and retained a threat on the break. Not for the first time in recent weeks they craved the surety of a two-goal cushion to see them through the latter stages, and the anxiety that welled up had Mourinho protesting furiously whenever Suárez went to ground, particularly after Eto'o's barge once the ball had gone seven minutes from time. The Uruguayan was apoplectic, baffled at the non-award of a penalty. This was not to be his day, with Chelsea biting back. The festive period has been unforgiving for Liverpool. They sat top of the pile on Christmas Day, rightly satisfied by their campaign and with Suárez signed up to a new contract, and yet, after the first successive league defeats of Rodgers' tenure, now languish fifth and outside the Champions League places.
That is sobering enough, even without Sakho (hamstring) and Joe Allen (groin) now injured and surely absent for the foreseeable future. And yet, as Rodgers pointed out, there was still promise to be picked up from each of their defeats over the past week, whether in the bite to the attacks summoned by Suárez, Coutinho and Henderson or the excellence – that second goal aside – of Mignolet in denying Chelsea further reward.
They had led early, Coutinho delivering viciously towards the near post, where Suárez and Branislav Ivanovic – those familiar foes from Anfield in April – tumbled as they wrestled to connect and the ball struck the Serb and wrong-footed Petr Cech in the process. Skrtel, alone in front of a gaping goal, could not believe his luck. Yet that is where their good fortune ran out. Sakho looped a header on to the bar from Henderson's delivery before that late penalty appeal signalled the end. This was not to be their day. It is Chelsea who go tearing into the new year.
Man of the match Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
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