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Chelsea will hope this was the thunderous occasion when conviction was injected into their title challenge. Liverpool, so impressive to date this term, were beaten for only the second time in seven league visits to this corner of south-west London with José Mourinho ending the contest arms aloft and beseeching the home support to propel his team over the line.
The Portuguese's reaction betrayed raw emotion. Edging four points clear of their visitors, while remaining still two shy of the summit, felt significant as edginess crept in late on and Luis Suárez's penalty appeal was waved away. There was an irony that it was a Chelsea forward rather than the Uruguayan who would settle the contest, given the hosts' toils up front this season. The Londoners will take heart from that, too, while Liverpool lick their wounds.
After those searing victories over Tottenham Hotspur and Cardiff, and confirmation of Suárez's contract extension, the Christmas period has proved rather sobering for Brendan Rodgers. His team may have performed well both at Manchester City and here in daunting away fixtures, but the first successive league defeats of his tenure have left them entering the new year outside the Champions League places and trailing Everton. They had lost Joe Allen to a groin injury and Mamadou Sakho to a pinged hamstring before the end, wounds which will hamper their attempts to muster an immediate backlash.
In the context of much of what was to come, it seemed strange to consider that the visitors' breakneck start had rather caught Chelsea cold, a flustered Samuel Eto'o raking his studs down Jordan Henderson's right shin in the opening minute. From the resultant free-kick, Liverpool led. Philippe Coutinho's delivery towards the near-post was vicious, Suárez and Branislav Ivanovic – those familiar foes from Anfield in April – tumbling as they wrestled to connect, with the ball striking the Serb and wrong-footing Petr Cech in the process. Martin Skrtel, alone in front of a gaping goal, could not believe his luck.
That should have proved the springboard for Rodgers' team, an advantage to which they could cling and seek to prosper on the counter-attack. Yet it merely served to shrug the hosts from their initial slumbers. They had transformed the occasion by the interval, their forays forward slick and conducted at rare pace as Eden Hazard, watched by his brother Thorgan from the stands, Oscar and Willian tore into a back-line that can, at times, feel cumbersome. There had been warning signs before parity was restored, Simon Mignolet saving well from Hazard and brilliantly from Frank Lampard, though the Belgian's luck ran out.
It was his compatriot who benefited. Hazard sparked the move that yielded Chelsea's first, shifting the ball from central midfield to Willian before Oscar took up possession and bolted into enemy territory. Liverpool defenders backed off, uncertain and increasingly panicked, with the Brazilian's intended pass for Eto'o rebounding from Sakho and back across the edge of the area. Hazard, his run unchecked, dispatched it first time, all whip and bend, with Mignolet helpless and beaten.
It was Hazard's 10th goal in all competitions this season, a tally that has eased some of the pressure on Chelsea's blunt strikers, though even one of their number would prosper here. The furious contest had burst beyond the half-hour mark when David Luiz – employed in central midfield – and Cesar Azpilicueta combined for Oscar to gather, his initial touch appearing to strike Sakho's arm. The crowd's appeals for handball went ignored, the playmaker regathering and turning the French centre-half to square for Eto'o, granted too much space by Skrtel, to stretch and convert through Mignolet. On that occasion, as at the Etihad stadium with Alvaro Negredo's second, the goalkeeper should have done better.
He would redeem himself in part by denying Eto'o a second with his shoulder after Sakho's rush of blood. Yet Liverpool had desperately needed a response, their own attacking play having rather petered out after that initial charge for all that Allen did force Cech to save a shot spat at the diagonal. There was more urgency after the interval, Henderson clipping a centre cleverly into the area where Sakho, in between the recently arrived substitute John Mikel Obi and Oscar, looped a header on to the crossbar.
Their pressure was menacing thereafter, Glen Johnson forcing Cech to turn away a skimmed attempt from distance, even if Chelsea pressed feverishly and retained a threat on the break. Not for the first time in recent weeks they craved the surety of a two-goal cushion to see them through the latter stages, and the anxiety that welled up had Mourinho protesting furiously whenever Suárez went to ground, particularly after Eto'o's barge once the ball had gone seven minutes from time. The Uruguayan was apoplectic, baffled at the non-award of a penalty. This was not to be his day, with Chelsea biting back.
via Football news, match reports and fixtures | theguardian.com http://feeds.theguardian.com/c/34708/f/663845/s/354f2309/sc/13/l/0L0Stheguardian0N0Cfootball0C20A130Cdec0C290Cchelsea0Eliverpool0Epremier0Eleague0Ematch0Ereport/story01.htm
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