Liverpool (1) Chelsea (2): Fixture List Takes a Toll as Reds Lose in London

A Chelsea striker scored? Click here for the lowlights
And just like that, we fall from first at Christmas to fifth at New Years; another road trip and another loss as Liverpool lose back to back for the first time in forever with a 2-1 reversal to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Martin Skrtel opened the scoring in the third minute when he prodded home a deflected Luis Suarez header, but Eden Hazard quickly restored parity with a magnificent curling shot that had Reds ‘keeper Simon Mignolet well beat. A perfect low cross from Oscar after a hard working display from the Brazilian saw Samuel Eto’o slide in the go-ahead goal, and eventual winner, before the break. Much like the meeting with Manchester City on boxing day, the Reds will feel aggrieved to leave London with nothing as the similarities to the trip to the Etihad amounted to more than just the eventual outcome.

For the second match on the bounce, we saw a thin squad get thinner; injuries to first team players have an impact on any squad, but when you’re up against arguably the two deepest in the league in Manchester City and Chelsea, you understand how important strength in numbers actually is. Essentially the same set of players ran out three matches in eight days and it showed — when Liverpool is on form, it’s all high tempo and deep pressing like we saw against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City; we saw none of that today.

The entire midfield looked ragged with Joe Allen going off injured on the hour mark and Mamadou Sakho doing his hamstring in the dying moments. Glen Johnson was worse for wear and even the normally indefatigable Luis Suarez looked loagy — though the latter had two obvious penalty shouts waived away.

Would of, should of and could of’s don’t win matches — but they do tell a significant portion of the tale in our last two. Once again, refereeing decisions were a key factor in the outcome with a number of shocking incidents going unpunished. You won’t hear me complain about officiating too often at all, but Howard Webb had a shocker; a studs up, late tackle from Eto’o on Henderson in the opening exchanges left the midfield man writhing in agony, Willian showed that he’s a foul machine with no repercussions whatsoever, Terry and Gary Cahill both played the thug at least once and Eto’o got away with another when he tripped up Suarez — nowhere near the ball — as the Uruguayan tussled to regain possession from Cesar Azpilicueta in the Chelsea box.

Congrats Brad
Much like against Manchester City, Brendan Rodgers has a case to complain; but unlike against the Citizens, his team was beaten by the better side with a head scratcher from the Northern Irishman leaving more than just me confused.

Rodgers has never been afraid to blood a youngster in a Premier League match, but introducing 19-year old Brad Smith to the melee after Allen pulled up injured was hardly called for. With Luis Alberto on the bench, and having already shown that he’s a capable replacement, overlooking the Spaniard to hand the Australian a debut made little sense to me — unless it’s a thinly veiled plea to the owners for replacements in January, which is something, I think anyways, that isn’t necessary at all. One does not tinker or play silly games when you’re a goal down at the Bridge — still, I digress.

We put in two good performances at two of the toughest grounds in the Premier League and missed out by mere margins on both occasions. Sakho’s header pinging agonizingly off the crossbar with Petr Cech well beat was as clear an indication that things weren’t about to go our way as Raheem Sterling ballooning Suarez’s cross with Joe Hart nowhere to be seen. You don’t always get what you deserve, but at this point, it would be hard to ask for more.

We’ve dropped out of the Champions League places for only the second time this season and had you offered me fifth place at the turn of the calendar I would of snapped your hand off for it. It’s a tight race — we’re only 6 from the top — and with a number of key players about to return, we’re well placed to push on from here. We’ve already visited White Hart Lane, the Etihad, Stamford Bridge, Goodison Park and the Emirates Stadium; I think we’re on the downslope, friends.

Steven

Am I drunk? Are we going to implode in 2014 or is this the team that qualifies for the Champions League? Let me know in the comments or hit us up on Facebook or Twitter.




Steven McMillan

Can’t find up from down or tell black from white, but doesn't care cause it’s all Red to him. When he's not pissing and moaning about all things Liverpool, he’s chatting nonsense with his multiple personalities — or his “entourage” as he likes to call them.

One thought on “Liverpool (1) Chelsea (2): Fixture List Takes a Toll as Reds Lose in London

  • December 30, 2013 at 2:36 pm
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    Jose’s Chelsea have the ref’s on their side they always do… Football is a corrupt game, and the authorities hate the city of Liverpool because The people of Liverpool (city) had the Balls to stand up and demand political change. Also this is 2 games in a Row that I have seen Suarez taken out off the ball. If Liverpool acted like Chelsea it would be all over the News. Think about The fouls that Eto committed, what if Suarez committed them? People in the media would be calling for him to be kicked out the country.

    Right from the start Hendo was given a bad game because he could not run because he got kicked in the Knee and that should have been a Red Card for Chelsea. And in the Last bit of the game Lucus got kicked in the back of the leg. Chelsea should have had at least 4 red cards, just from what I can remember off the top of my head.

    But the real reason why we lost this game is the pressing… we did not have the energy to press back. And that is for 2 reasons. 1 we don’t have the ability to rotate players. I mean both Allen and Hendo had slight injuries before kick off. 2 They kicked us to death.

    To be fair Suso went in against Man U and was amazing. Stirling came in against Man city and blew us all away…. And Smith was brave he tried but oh well.

    This was the best Chelsea played all season and they were still boring. If I wanted to watch players running just to close down. I would watch athletics.

    I said before the season started we could challenge for the tittle but only if we got no injures… Given the how many injuries we have had it is amazing that we are still in the race.?

    Hendo, Lucus, Allen, Gerard, Enrique, Flano, Sakho, DS, could all be out for the next game… Who are we going to play against Hull?

    Oh yeah have you noticed that Stirlings crossing is getting much better then what is used to be??

    To me these big games were big because we lost against the smaller teams. We need to target 80 points for the season and now I don’t see us getting that without signings.

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