Roman Abramovich didn’t turn up and nor did Chelsea. For the first time the champions’ confidence cracked at Anfield yesterday, when they stumbled their way through easily the worst performance of Jose Mourinho’s two-and-a-half years as manager.
Liverpool were excellent, and deserve full credit for a result that has them eyeing runners-up spot in the Premiership, but Chelsea were feeble in the extreme, failing to bring a single save from Jose Reina, and a video of the match will have Wycombe Wanderers fancying their chances in Tuesday’s second leg of their Carling Cup semi-final at Stamford Bridge.
Mourinho, justifiably, pointed to the injuries that left him without a specialist centre-half, and insisted the title race was still there to be won, even in the event of Manchester United going nine points clear this afternoon, but his attitude and general demeanour told a different story. He has let it be known that it was the board’s decision, not his, to sell William Gallas and Robert Huth during the summer.
He also reiterated last night that he informed his employers in December that he wanted two new players during the January transfer window, one of them a central defender, and his body language throughout the game screamed: “There you are — I told you so.”
Already without John Terry and Khalid Boulahrouz, he lost Ricardo Carvalho with a high temperature on the morning of the match and was left with a gossamer back four that featured a midfielder (Geremi) at right-back, and right-back (Paulo Ferreira) and midfielder (Michael Essien) at centre-half.
Unsurprisingly the Liverpool strikers, Peter Crouch and Dirk Kuyt, had a field day. Nor did Chelsea’s problems end there. Claude Makelele, such an influential midfield anchor, was suspended and the injury-waiting-to-happen that is Arjen Robben limped out of the fray in all-too-familiar fashion after only 21 minutes.
Fully aware of his opponents’ defensive frailty, Rafa Benitez captitalised with a long-ball game that fully exposed the inadequacy of Ferreira and Essien in aerial combat. Mourinho had considered using Didier Drogba, a striker, at centre-back to remedy this weakness, but decided against it because he was not prepared to start with Andriy Shevchenko in attack.
The Ukrainian has been such a disappointment that his manager is now reluctant to use him under any circumstances and, even with Chelsea chasing the game almost from the start, the £30m man was restricted to a 15-minute cameo here. Petr Cech, back in goal for the first time since fracturing his skull in October, had barely finished adjusting his protective scrum cap when he was bending to pick the ball out of the back of his net.
Just over three minutes had elapsed when Jamie Carragher’s long, lofted through ball found its way fortuitously via Crouch’s back (he had missed with his head) to Kuyt, who cut in past Ferreira with uncommon ease before shooting firmly into Cech’s right-hand corner from 12 yards. It was a handsome goal to score, but a ghastly one from the defensive viewpoint. With Essien and Ferreira playing like strangers, Liverpool should have had a second after seven minutes but the left-footed John Arne Riise, presented with acres of space, shot weakly with his right, enabling Cech to save.
Mourinho might have reduced the numbers of square pegs in round holes by switching to a 3-5-2 formation, and deploying John Obi Mikel as one of the three at the back. This would have allowed Essien to fill the Makelele vacancy and Geremi to play the wing-back role to which he is best suited.
Instead, with everybody at sixes and sevens, Liverpool scored again in the 18th minute, when Essien headed Steven Gerrard’s long ball straight to Pennant, who smashed in a spectacular goal — his first for the club — from 25 yards. The shot went in via the crossbar with Ashley Cole, the only Chelsea defender playing in his regular position, a culpable distance from his man.
Two goals down, the situation cried out for Mourinho to go gung-ho but, almost perversely, he persisted with his ramshackle back four. At half-time his response to the gathering crisis was to instruct Mikel to play deeper and contest the high balls that were such a problem for Ferreira and Essien. It worked, up to a point, but left Michael Ballack, whose form and contribution seems to deteriorate by the week, and Frank Lampard hopelessly outnumbered in midfield, where Gerrard ruled the roost.
Liverpool should have had a third on the hour, but after Riise had shivered the crossbar from fully 40 yards, Crouch made a dreadful hash of the loose ball, spurning what was effectively an open goal. Kuyt was similarly wasteful with a far post volley from Riise’s cross, then fired over when well placed.
Chelsea’s palsied attempts at a fightback amounted to no more than a better share of possession, and when Shevchenko finally came on, it was to be reminded of his bitterest European Cup memory by the Kop, who chanted: “In Istanbul, we won it five times.” Their other text for the day was “Bye, bye Mourinho, alternated with “Rafa’s the Special One.”
Not yet he’s not — not after losing three times to Arsenal this season. But Liverpool, unlike Chelsea, are heading in the right direction. They confidently expect to continue their charge against West Ham on January 30.
Smiling broadly at the success of his long-ball gameplan, Benitez said: “We’re closer to Chelsea now and we can build on that.” In contrasting mood, Mourinho said: “Liverpool played well, they are full of confidence at the moment and they knew our defence was going to be fragile so they used two big guys up front and we couldn’t cope with it. Rafa is not stupid and I’m not a magician. Crouch was too tall for us and Kuyt too strong. It wasn’t really a surprise. Players not used to playing centre-half found it difficult to adapt to that position. We cannot do miracles.”
Star man: Dirk Kuyt (Liverpool)
Player Ratings: Liverpool: Reina 6, Finnan 6, Carragher 7, Agger 6, Riise 7, Pennant 6, Gerrard 7, Alonso 6, Aurelio 6, Crouch 5, Kuyt 8 Chelsea: Cech 5, Geremi 5, Ferreira 4, Essien 5, A Cole 5, Lampard 6, Ballack 4, Mikel 5, Kalou 5, Drogba 6, Robben 5
Referee: R Styles
Attendance: 44,245
