Liverpool started February in much brighter mood after a late victory ensured Liverpool got a deserved Premiership double over Chelsea – the first time since the title winning side of 1989/90.
Chelsea ended with 10 men, although could count themselves lucky they didn’t end up with 9 in a game in which Liverpool dominated from start to finish. Chelsea fans may be aggrieved that Lampard was shown his marching orders, and admittedly I do have a small tinge of sympathy about the decision but it fails to explain the fact that Liverpool outshone Chelsea both with and without Lampard on the pitch.
As Robbie Keane watched on from the stands, with Tom Hicks and George Gillett also in attendance the reds set out their stall early – playing high up the pitch and denying Chelsea any room to manouevre.
As the snow drove down at Anfield, the reds started the game hungry for all three points and defender Alex made a couple of great blocks to stop the reds setting a first half lead.
An Alonso drive was tipped over by Cech, before he failed to clear a Mascherano attempt. An attempt at bringing the ball out nearly ended in Blue tears as the reds almost took the ball off him as he tried to clear.
Towards the end of the first a Riera strike had to be cleared by Ashley Cole behind for a corner.
The game had seen a few yellow cards and on the 60th minute mark Frank Lampard was sent off for a high challenge on Xabi Alonso. In the interest of balance it was admittedly a harsh decision but the referee was well placed and there is little question it was a foul. Lampard and Alonso’s chequered history continues.
In the resulting melee John Terry also got a deserved yellow card. Once again Chelsea’s hounding of referee’s left an ugly taste in the mouth.
Liverpool had continued the second half in the same vein as the first – total domination.
Benitez made a couple of attacking substitutions – replacing Riera with Benayoun and Mascherano with Babel.
It looked like Liverpool were going to suffer another harsh draw but Fernando Torres rose to Aurelio’s 88th minute cross and headed past Cech to send the Kop in to jubilations. Finally Chelsea would have to try and attack. Within minutes the reds doubled their lead when Ashley Cole forgot how to defend and Torres lashed home his second of the game. The reds should have had a third but the referee ended the game early to spare Chelsea’s blushes.
A fully deserved win. The reds move back to 2nd, two points behind United.
Fernando Torres 88th min
Fernando Torres 93rd min
Rafa Benitez Post Match Interview
Fernando Torres Post Match Interview
Teams
Liverpool: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Kuyt, Alonso, Mascherano (Babel 83), Riera (Benayoun 74), Gerrard, Torres (Ngog 90).
Subs Not Used: Cavalieri, Dossena, Agger, Leiva Lucas.
Booked: Mascherano, Alonso, Gerrard, Arbeloa.
Goals: Torres 89, 90.
Chelsea: Cech, Bosingwa, Alex, Terry, Ashley Cole, Ballack, Mikel, Lampard, Kalou (Stoch 85), Anelka (Drogba 69), Malouda (Deco 69).
Subs Not Used: Hilario, Ivanovic, Ferreira, Mancienne.
Sent Off: Lampard (60).
Booked: Ashley Cole, Mikel, Terry.
Att: 44,174
Ref: Mike Riley (Yorkshire).
Torres you are the best player in the world! <3
Nice….nice…nice….nice….
Brilliant goal torres….
thats wats up!!! A double against Chelsea Manchester here we come!!!
A fantastic result and great performance but have a bitter taste after the way Benitez has treated Robbie Keane, it’s disgusting, he never gave him a bloody chance and yet he still plays Babel and Lucas, what rubbish they are…. A lot is happening to our great club, with that pair or yankee tossers, two faced parry and Benitez who can’t even act like adults, shanks and Bob Paisley must be turning over
exactly its like coming back from the dead
el nino knows patienc is the key and he will have to wait for the goals.now that robbie keane is gon it will be torres and gerrard partnership again
keep it up lads
youll never walk alone!
Absolutely brilliant performance, and i dont care what Scolari says, the sending off didn’t change the game at all. We were all over them from start to finish. Only a few good saves from Cech stopped it being a much bigger victory. However, i agree with El Tel above, about matches against lower teams. Im from Hull so that game and afterwards was not nice for me! But we have to be optimistic, hopefully Torres is back in business because weve got no chance at the title without him scoring lots of goals.
Great result, and very well played, but why oh why cannot we do this against the likes of Stoke, Hull etc which will eventually cost us the Premiership. Now let us see what we can do against Pompey. Which Reds side will be turning up? El Tel
Benitez is lucky this time round! This win isn’t attributed to your strategies and please make sane substitutions otherwise you’ll definately fumble & dissapoint us again!
what was that tit doing booting Yossi in the back? They are lucky we didnt win by more
Looking forward to returning to work here in London after having to return from Liverpool whilst the match was being played but hey, happy days!
‘Nando is on fire and Anfield was ablaze after a very late and very great victory. I’ve seen the highlights and we dominated the match from start to finish. The team played some nifty, classy footy and it’s 3 well deserved points in the bag. Well done to Fabio and Yossi for the assists, it is a team game even if ‘Nando grabs the headlines. Enjoy this victory, I am and will!! 😉
Fully deserved victory! Total domination from start ’til end. Keep it up, Reds!!!
Fans from Serbia are with you! You’ll never walk alone!
Fantastic result. We need to now go on a long winning streak. The crowd was amazing. Keep it up!
YNWA
Torres!!!!! get in there
Fantastic result and performance, fully deserved.
Brilliant first win of 2009 – although a little bit overdue