I have to say I haven’t felt quite so sick before a game in a long time. The vultures were circling, just waiting to write us off and to be fair we’d given them plenty to chew over in our performances against both Wigan and Apoel Nicosia, so I’m not going to beat myself up for feeling less than optimistic. For a start, it’s Liverpool and we know how sickening the idea of losing to them is nevermind the way the press would react to it. It just didn’t bear thinking about.
Team-wise, Ballack was back in but with no starting place for Joe Cole, Malouda or Zhirkov, and a training injury to Bosingwa seeing him replaced by Ivanovic, width wasn’t going to be a strong point for us and with our hit-and-hope response to Liverpool’s strong start, I wasn’t entirely convinced we actually had a strong point.
Mind you, I have to admit it was nice to see the keeper coming out confidently to gather a ball swung in from the corner, I forgot it wasn’t Cech for a minute until I realised there wasn’t a helmet in sight. Not much to say about the first half really, it wasn’t much of a performance from either of us with us just about cancelling each other out and a draw might well have been anticipated. Drogba and Ballack both trying to head the same ball, Ballack missing a chance with his head and Anelka shooting at Reina just about summed it up really – all half chances and we didn’t take any of them. Liverpool meanwhile seemed to be trying to feed every ball through to Torres and with him having one of his poorer games, it wasn’t paying off for them. So, 0-0 at half-time it was.
Second half and no changes although in terms of play, you could see Ancelotti had maybe had the odd word during the break. Unfortunately Didier Drogba must’ve had his ipod on at the time because the longer the game wore on, the more his theatrics grated the nerves. Needless to say though, when push came to shove it was none other than Drogba putting the ball across the face of goal for Nicolas Anelka to tuck home. An hour gone and 1-0 up, so only another half hour of nail biting to go then.
‘Benitez time’ as they apparently call it now came after the hour, with Benayoun coming on for Riera. Decent throw out from Hilario which Drogba latches onto, loses, wins back and then ends up on the floor again. Credit to the Chelsea captain, who for the second week in succession goes over and tells him to get up – his old sniper-in-the-crowd routine really was wearing a bit thin. Malouda on for Deco and then goodness me, surely a case of mistaken identity by the ref who inadvertently waved a yellow card in the direction of Stevie Me.
Last ten minutes you could just see an equaliser coming with first Gerrard and then Torres taking pot shots but fortunately that’s all they were. And with just 5 minutes left, the arse cheeks were surely getting visibly tighter? Or maybe I was just looking a little too hard?
3 minutes of added time didn’t seem to please Benitez, although given Malouda put us 2-0 up with Drogba again the provider, you’d have to wonder whether Rafa’s just a glutton for punishment. Liverpool almost managed a late consolation, with Benayoun doing enough work to leave Hilario on his arse and a virtually empty goal – to slide it wide of. Fortunately Hilario then more than stood up to a late shot from Gerrard, to deny the Liverpool captain in the dying seconds.
Overall then, not a great performance but good enough. Hilario wasn’t exactly tested with both Gerrard and Torres having off days but what he needed to do, he did well. Didier Drogba football-wise was a pain in Liverpool’s arse, totally the difference between the two sides, but theatrics-wise was just as big a pain in ours. And for me our midfield, particularly in the first half, left a lot to be desired – Frank Lampard just isn’t Frank Lampard in this system and that’s to our detriment.
Still, the results are coming – and when they come against Liverpool, I couldn’t be happier.
TEAMS
CHELSEA: Hilario, Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Essien, Lampard, Anelka, Deco (Malouda 75), Drogba.
Subs: Turnbull, Joe Cole, Malouda, Zhirkov, Kalou, Sturridge, Belletti.
LIVERPOOL: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Insua, Kuyt, Mascherano, Lucas (Babel), Riera (Benayoun, 66), Gerrard, Torres.
Subs: Cavalieri, Agger, Aurelio, Benayoun, Kyrgiakos, Babel, Ngog.
Blue is the colour
