Chelsea 0 - Liverpool 0 Match report by William TanLike so many matches that Liverpool have played this season, we controlled the tempo of the match and reduced Chelsea’s attacking ambitions to virtually nil except for a ‘real’ goal attempt by Ballack when they broke through in the final few minutes of the game. Other than that attempt at goal, Pepe hardly had a dive to make during the game …… no wonder the journalists called the game a boring drab draw.
They wanted to see Chelsea beat Liverpool and compound more misery on the Merseysiders especially now that Everton are 3 points ahead in the league table and that would sell their papers!
Chelsea’s other ‘attempt’ at goal was in the final minutes of the match when Ashley Cole crossed into the Liverpool 6 yard box and Riise were forced to head the ball back to Reina gently though it was sure to raise the heartbeat of a few supporters as it could easily have been an own goal. Even Bluenose, Andy Gray was excited at it probably secretly wishing that it had been an own goal ….. and Everton would have gone four points clear of Liverpool.
In truth, on a better day, Crouch could have had a hattrick if only he had his scoring boots on. Crouchy had several headers at Cech’s goal but some were weak headers that were easily handled by the Chelsea stopper whilst others were wayward headers – if only Crouchy had practiced his heading when he way younger, he could have been an even bigger star for us.
Of all the chances that Crouchy had, the best opening were created from Riise’s deep cross from the left which found Crouchy just outside the penalty box and headed it to Babel who took a deft touch and set up for Crouchy to shoot from just inside the penalty box – but it was milimetres wide of the Cech’s left post!
Chelsea’s midfield were totally outplayed by Mascherano, Lucas and Gerrard behind Crouch. Chelsea had Makelele and Lampard in the middle with Joe Cole and Wright-Phillips out wide. With such setup, it was clear Liverpool were playing 4-5-1 when defending but were capable of switching to 4-3-3 during counter attacks with Kuyt and Babel out wide respectively.
Throughout the whole match, Liverpool more than matched Chelsea in every department and created better chances which if it had been converted by Crouch, it would have been another step towards securing fourth place.
Post match commentary by Arvam Grant included his version of the penalty claim when Joe Cole turned Finnan and Mascherano were back covering and Joe Cole ran into a shocked Mascherano who saw the turn and attempted to pull out ala Finnan and Malouda in the Anfield
match and the referee who was ten yards away, did not blink an eye and allowed play to go on.
In all fairness, it was more like Joe Cole making a meal of his turning into Mascherano although some pundits will claim that penalties have been given for such ‘soft’ offences.
It was most interesting to note that Arvam Grant harped on that penalty claim and not on his team’s inability to break a stubborn Liverpool backline marshalled by a new formidable pairing of Carragher and new punk …. Skrtel.
Both had played well against a pacey and tricky Anelka and Anelka hardly had a look-in at Pepe’s goal. Skrtel made crucial clearances and several hard but fair tackles – most notably in the last ten minutes when he timed his tackle beautifully and dispossessed Chelsea’s Alex before starting a run on Chelsea’s goal but was tripped by Alex before he could go far.
Pundits had been having a field day on Skrtel’s performances recently against Havant and Waterlooville and Sunderland but based on his performance last night against a top notch team like Chelsea, Liverpool have got another good transfer bargain.
Given time and Skrtel’s learning of a new language and his aclimatising with RAFA’s tactics and his new team mates, Skrtel could prove to be another good signing ala Torres and Agger except that this time, Skrtel’s fee was only GBP6 million although it is the highest fee paid by Liverpool.
It would be a formidable partnership made in heaven if we have Carragher, Agger and Skrtel in the backline in a 3-5-2 formation as Agger and Skrtel have decent acceleration over short distances.
But we all know that with RAFA, you can never predict his tactics, team formations and his line-ups.
Such competent performance in Stamford Bridge will be the platform for Liverpool to launch our final assault this season in the EPL for final qualifying spot (yes! that dreaded fourth spot again this season) in Champions League this season.
If we keep up this performance level for the rest of the season, we could possibly end up with third place as Chelsea would still have to play against Arsenal and Man Utd and under intense pressure, some teams might collapse.
This performance would also put us in good stead for the Champions League match against Inter Milan on February 20th at Anfield. Until then, we have the weekend FA Cup match against Barnsley at Anfield on Feb 16th to look forward to.
Chelsea: Cech, Belletti, Carvalho, Alex, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Makelele, Lampard (Obi 71), Wright-Phillips (Malouda 64), Anelka, Joe Cole (Pizarro 86).
Subs Not Used: Cudicini, Ben-Haim.
Booked: Belletti, Carvalho, Alex.
Liverpool: Reina, Finnan, Carragher, Skrtel, Riise, Gerrard, Mascherano, Lucas, Babel (Pennant 71), Crouch, Kuyt.
Subs Not Used: Itandje, Kewell, Benayoun, San Jose Dominguez.
Booked: Babel, Riise.
Att: 41,788
Ref: Mike Riley (Yorkshire).
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