Chelsea 0-1 Liverpool: Xabi Alonso ends Stamford Bridge record to usher in a new era
By Oliver Holt 27/10/2008
All the old certainties of life are abandoning us.
House prices have stopped going up, Australia can’t win cricket matches and Gordon Brown’s started to look happy.
To top it all off, the safest bank in football went bump yesterday when Chelsea lost a league game at home.
For the first time in more than four and a half years, the Stamford Bridge crowd saw their invincibles vanquished in the Premier League.
For the first time in 86 matches, the first time since Arsenal left here with a win on February 21, 2004, they had to endure the strange taste of defeat.
It made it worse that it was Liverpool who beat them. The same Liverpool who twice broke Chelsea hearts in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
And the same Liverpool who are now appear on the verge of fashioning their first significant challenge for the title for two decades.
Their fans danced and bounced like maniacs in their corner of the ground when the final whistle went and they leapfrogged Chelsea at the top of the table.
They baited Chelsea supporters with their favourite taunt about how ’you ain’t got no history’ even as they ripped one precious strand of that history away from them.
And they headed back to Merseyside knowing that they had outplayed their hosts even without their leading striker, the injured Fernando Torres.
So now that the record so keenly cherished and fiercely protected by Jose Mourinho has gone, the question is whether this match held a deeper significance.
Chelsea should be able to shrug it off as easily as their manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, who said a defeat was a defeat wherever it was played.
Lost points were lost points, Scolari shrugged. "I say sorry to the fans," the Brazil boss added, "but my players did their best."
Scolari and Chelsea can also take heart from the fact that they were missing crucial players like Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Joe Cole.
The physical presence of Drogba was particularly sorely missed yesterday against a Liverpool central defensive partnership of Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger who dealt with everything that was thrown at them with great courage and authority.
The fact that Chelsea were pumping long balls into the box in the first place, though, was a sign that the home team had run out of ideas.
That was a tribute to a Liverpool side who provided the perfect away performance, full of poise and assurance, rock solid at the back, dangerous on the break and underpinned by a formidable amount of hard work.
Chelsea will move back into the mix when they start to get their injured players back but they may still find it hard to dislodge Liverpool from the Premier League summit.
It is the first time we have been able to say that for many, many years. Even in the best times under Gerard Houllier, Liverpool never quite looked like they had the depth or the quality to last the course.
But now they do. They were superb as they dismantled Chelsea’s record yesterday, anchored by brilliant performances from Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano in the heart of midfield.
They also appear to have gained an extra dimension, maybe even the final piece in the jigsaw, with the arrival of Spanish wide player, Albert Riera.
Riera, who appears to have had a brain transplant since he played at Manchester City, was outstanding against Chelsea right back Jose Bosingwa.
He has perfected a technique of seeming to lose the ball and then recovering it and wriggling past his man. His delivery from the left was consistently good.
Steven Gerrard was excellent as always, full backs Fabio Aurelio and Alvaro Arbeloa were neat and clever and Dirk Kuyt did everything he could to keep Ashley Cole occupied.
On the solitary occasion when Cole did get free, he wasted Chelsea’s best chance to salvage a draw, snatching at a left-foot half volley after a good nod down from Franco di Santo.
Liverpool deserved their win, though. They had taken the lead in the 10th minute when Alonso’s shot deflected off the chest of Bosingwa and left Cech helpless.
Chelsea tried as best they could to force their way back into the game but Deco was quiet and Lampard ran into the brick wall built by Alonso and Mascherano.
Liverpool might have won the game more comfortably and Alonso crashed a free kick against the base of Cech’s left hand post early in the second half.
Scolari grew more and more frustrated with his side’s readiness to lump long balls high into the Liverpool box.
And even though Rafa Benitez became increasingly animated on the touchline, Cole’s miss was their only moment of real vulnerability.
Benitez, who has constructed this Liverpool side so patiently and so lovingly, was already thinking about his team’s next match against Portsmouth a few minutes after the final whistle.
"If we are going to keep this mentality and this momentum," he said, "we need another three points in our next match. We want to stay at the top of the table for a long time."
Scolari did not seem unduly dismayed by becoming the manager who lost the most famous unbeaten record in football.
"The players are sad," he said, "but the war isn’t over. It’s just one game.".
Chelsea: Cech 6, Bosingwa 5, Carvalho 6, Terry 7, Cole 7, Mikel 6, Deco 5(Sinclair 5), Lampard 7, Malouda 5(Belletti 6), Kalou 5(Di Santo 6), Anelka 6.
Liverpool: Reina 7, Arbeloa 7, Carragher 8, Agger 8, Aurelio 7, Kuyt 7(Lucas 6), Alonso 8, Mascherano 8, Riera 7(Hyypia 7), Gerrard 7, Keane 6(Babel 7).
Hero: Alonso - ran the match.
Villain: Deco - couldn’t step up when team needed him.
By Oliver Holt 27/10/2008
All the old certainties of life are abandoning us.
House prices have stopped going up, Australia can’t win cricket matches and Gordon Brown’s started to look happy.
To top it all off, the safest bank in football went bump yesterday when Chelsea lost a league game at home.
For the first time in more than four and a half years, the Stamford Bridge crowd saw their invincibles vanquished in the Premier League.
For the first time in 86 matches, the first time since Arsenal left here with a win on February 21, 2004, they had to endure the strange taste of defeat.
It made it worse that it was Liverpool who beat them. The same Liverpool who twice broke Chelsea hearts in the semi-finals of the Champions League.
And the same Liverpool who are now appear on the verge of fashioning their first significant challenge for the title for two decades.
Their fans danced and bounced like maniacs in their corner of the ground when the final whistle went and they leapfrogged Chelsea at the top of the table.
They baited Chelsea supporters with their favourite taunt about how ’you ain’t got no history’ even as they ripped one precious strand of that history away from them.
And they headed back to Merseyside knowing that they had outplayed their hosts even without their leading striker, the injured Fernando Torres.
So now that the record so keenly cherished and fiercely protected by Jose Mourinho has gone, the question is whether this match held a deeper significance.
Chelsea should be able to shrug it off as easily as their manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, who said a defeat was a defeat wherever it was played.
Lost points were lost points, Scolari shrugged. "I say sorry to the fans," the Brazil boss added, "but my players did their best."
Scolari and Chelsea can also take heart from the fact that they were missing crucial players like Didier Drogba, Michael Ballack and Joe Cole.
The physical presence of Drogba was particularly sorely missed yesterday against a Liverpool central defensive partnership of Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger who dealt with everything that was thrown at them with great courage and authority.
The fact that Chelsea were pumping long balls into the box in the first place, though, was a sign that the home team had run out of ideas.
That was a tribute to a Liverpool side who provided the perfect away performance, full of poise and assurance, rock solid at the back, dangerous on the break and underpinned by a formidable amount of hard work.
Chelsea will move back into the mix when they start to get their injured players back but they may still find it hard to dislodge Liverpool from the Premier League summit.
It is the first time we have been able to say that for many, many years. Even in the best times under Gerard Houllier, Liverpool never quite looked like they had the depth or the quality to last the course.
But now they do. They were superb as they dismantled Chelsea’s record yesterday, anchored by brilliant performances from Xabi Alonso and Javier Mascherano in the heart of midfield.
They also appear to have gained an extra dimension, maybe even the final piece in the jigsaw, with the arrival of Spanish wide player, Albert Riera.
Riera, who appears to have had a brain transplant since he played at Manchester City, was outstanding against Chelsea right back Jose Bosingwa.
He has perfected a technique of seeming to lose the ball and then recovering it and wriggling past his man. His delivery from the left was consistently good.
Steven Gerrard was excellent as always, full backs Fabio Aurelio and Alvaro Arbeloa were neat and clever and Dirk Kuyt did everything he could to keep Ashley Cole occupied.
On the solitary occasion when Cole did get free, he wasted Chelsea’s best chance to salvage a draw, snatching at a left-foot half volley after a good nod down from Franco di Santo.
Liverpool deserved their win, though. They had taken the lead in the 10th minute when Alonso’s shot deflected off the chest of Bosingwa and left Cech helpless.
Chelsea tried as best they could to force their way back into the game but Deco was quiet and Lampard ran into the brick wall built by Alonso and Mascherano.
Liverpool might have won the game more comfortably and Alonso crashed a free kick against the base of Cech’s left hand post early in the second half.
Scolari grew more and more frustrated with his side’s readiness to lump long balls high into the Liverpool box.
And even though Rafa Benitez became increasingly animated on the touchline, Cole’s miss was their only moment of real vulnerability.
Benitez, who has constructed this Liverpool side so patiently and so lovingly, was already thinking about his team’s next match against Portsmouth a few minutes after the final whistle.
"If we are going to keep this mentality and this momentum," he said, "we need another three points in our next match. We want to stay at the top of the table for a long time."
Scolari did not seem unduly dismayed by becoming the manager who lost the most famous unbeaten record in football.
"The players are sad," he said, "but the war isn’t over. It’s just one game.".
Chelsea: Cech 6, Bosingwa 5, Carvalho 6, Terry 7, Cole 7, Mikel 6, Deco 5(Sinclair 5), Lampard 7, Malouda 5(Belletti 6), Kalou 5(Di Santo 6), Anelka 6.
Liverpool: Reina 7, Arbeloa 7, Carragher 8, Agger 8, Aurelio 7, Kuyt 7(Lucas 6), Alonso 8, Mascherano 8, Riera 7(Hyypia 7), Gerrard 7, Keane 6(Babel 7).
Hero: Alonso - ran the match.
Villain: Deco - couldn’t step up when team needed him.
I know how you feel. I should feel elated, and I do to a point, but I know all my mates are waiting to turn on me in a heart beat 
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