Premier League: Liverpool v Chelsea full time report
Liverpool 2 Chelsea 0
Two goals from Fernando Torres gave Liverpool a fine victory over champions Chelsea at Anfield.
Torres scored his first after getting onto the end of Dirk Kuyt’s great pass, and then doubled his and Liverpool’s tally with a fine goal that showed he still has the ability to terrify defences and delight the home crowd.
The first chance of the match was the first Torres goal, and it was certainly worth the wait. Kuyt, returning from injury, picked out Torres with a great diagonal pass, and Torres showed great confidence by taking the ball down and neatly finishing past Cech.
Torres was looking like his very best, and he was running all over the place and putting pressure on the Chelsea defence. He scored a wonderful first goal, and then grabbed his second of the game a few minutes before half time. Ashley Cole was dispossessed in midfield and ended up on his backside, and that enabled Liverpool to move forward and find Torres inside the box, who managed to turn and curl his shot into the far corner of the net.
Chelsea didn’t do much in the first half, with their only effort coming through Salomon Kalou, and even that was a tame header on target and comfortable for Liverpool ‘keeper Pepe Reina.
Liverpool were excellent in the first half, and they began the second half in similar fashion, knocking the ball around with precision, and Maxi Rodriguez fired in a shot from the edge of the box which went straight into the arms of Cech.
Didier Drogba wasn’t in the starting line-up due to illness, but because of the way they played in the first 45 minutes, the powerful Ivorian came off the bench to try and turn things around for the champions.
Liverpool manager Roy Hodgson decided to sit back and allow Chelsea to come onto them, looking to hit them on the counter attack. Drogba got his first shot, but his free kick was not effectively. Ramires should have scored for Chelsea, with his header going over the bar after he got onto the end of Cole’s cross. The champions were beginning to get back into the game, and Yuri Zhirkov produced a good save from Reina on the hour mark after his shot on his favoured left foot was going in the near post.
Reina then produced a fantastic save to deny Florent Malouda five minutes later from point-blank range. It was a vital save from Reina as Chelsea were playing much better in the second half than they did in the first.
Liverpool hardly put an attack together in the second half, but they were soaking up the pressure well, and they didn’t need to as the onus was on Chelsea to score.
Just as Liverpool weren’t doing anything, suddenly they forced Cech into a world-class save 15 minutes from time from Kuyt, and within a split second from defending they could have scored a third goal.
Nicolas Anelka struck the bar late on, and when the rebound looked odds-on to fall to Drogba to score an open goal, Jamie Carragher superbly stopped Drogba from doing so.
Liverpool kept up their winning streak, winning their last three games in the league and four in all competitions. Chelsea had no answers this afternoon, and failed to go five points clear of Manchester United, who are now two points behind, with Arsenal in third and five points adrift, despite them losing 1-0 to Newcastle earlier.
Torres has now made it 44 goals in 47 games at Anfield, and the day truly belonged to Liverpool’s No.9.
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