Liverpool 2-0 Chelsea - Post Match

[Alex]

If the team keeps this up my Opinion will change of Hodgeson. If he gets it right on the pitch all of the other stuff will fall into place or go away. He still has a long way to go to win the fans over though.

[spanky]

I'm still not convinced with Roy but he deserves a lot of praise for todays results as do the lads, only thing that still bugs me and thats why we set off them in the second half? we just were asking for pressure and its not the first time this season that we've set back.

[JHP]

I'm still not convinced with Roy but he deserves a lot of praise for todays results as do the lads, only thing that still bugs me and thats why we set off them in the second half? we just were asking for pressure and its not the first time this season that we've set back.

They'd won the game and just wanted a bit of practice defending with 2 banks of 4.

[BigChief]

What a great day. I never had any doubt we'd win, not with the form Lucas, Gerrard and Anfield have been in. Torres coming in from the cold was just another bonus. When you got momentum, you really got momentum. Well done Roy for getting it together at last.

Also glad to see everyone's on a high today. Even Shaggy's posted so no suicides thankfully.

[Shaggy]

Roy Hodgson heaped praise on Fernando Torres after his awesome double sank Chelsea on Sunday - but warned against any complacency heading into a critical week in our season.

The Reds climbed to ninth in the Barclays Premier League following the 2-0 win - and with six points available in the next six days, that position could soon look even healthier.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Hodgson shared his delight that Torres proved to be the headline maker after a tough start to the campaign - and now he wants to see more of the same against Wigan and Stoke.

"I'm pleased with the all-round performance and I'm also pleased that Fernando Torres will get a lot of the plaudits," said the boss.

"He's taken more than his fair share of criticism, some of which has been grossly exaggerated and certainly not fully deserved.

"Of course, when the team's not winning it's hard to defend these things but today he'll get a lot of plaudits and people will say he's back to his best. Let's hope that's the case but certainly today he was. He played very, very well.

"One always hopes that playing at this very high level that you've got that quality of player.

"Today we had the quality of Fernando Torres and that won us the game alongside a very disciplined and organised performance from the others.

"I'll enjoy ninth but you can go back to 16th again with a couple of defeats. We've got to get ourselves going again for Wednesday (at Wigan).

"The squad is looking pretty small with the sickness and injuries we've picked up. It's a long season. It's 11 games in, so we're not even a third of the way through. I prefer in football to keep my feet on the ground.

"We'll have to produce a lot more performances like this from now until May. I can't guarantee we'll do that but I know the boys want to give those performances every week."

Asked how he would celebrate beating a team he never prevailed against with Fulham, Hodgson replied: "I shall probably watch Match of the Day because I'm interested in the other games. I will watch the DVD or the game on LFC TV, possibly, if I can't sleep in the early hours.

"I didn't beat them with Fulham. Thanks for reminding me of that!

"They certainly aren't going to lose many matches this season so I'm glad we've chalked up a victory against them.

"But certainly tonight I shall enjoy my evening and celebrate a significant victory with a glass of wine. It hasn't been the easiest of starts but I like to think my experience is shining through now, and the players are getting used to my ideas - ideas that have served me so well for so long."

The win was even more satisfying after two of Liverpool's first-choice defenders were ruled out just hours before kick-off.

Hodgson explained: "Sotirios Kyrgiakos called in with very severe tonsillitis, so he's very sick at this moment in time, and Glen Johnson turned up complaining about a groin problem which the physios decided was sufficiently bad that he had to miss the game."

The victory was witnessed by NESV principal owner John Henry and chairman Thomas Werner.

Quizzed by a New York journalist on the Americans' impact since arriving at Anfield, the manager said: "They have been very good for the club.

"For quite a long period of time we've been heading in the wrong direction and the new owners gave us hope that we no longer need to fear that we'll head in the wrong direction.

"I can only hope they are as successful with Liverpool Football Club as they have been with Boston Red Sox. If that's the case, we'll see Anfield rocking for a few years to come."

On Daniel Agger's continued absence with a calf injury, Hodgson said: "Agger is long-term. They can't put a date on it.

"At the moment he can't train, he has just got to rest and wait for the next time he goes to see the specialist again.

"They are very anxious that bone doesn't form. It is a calcification issue and training would certainly accelerate the calcification.

"Now they have to wait and hope the body breaks down the calcifying elements before he can even think about training again.

"So it could be very long term."

[little dave hedgehog]

Americans - always humble in victory.

there is no classless cunt in the world as bad as an american chelsea fan. they might as well support microsoft, or just go ahead and support a team made of oil with dollar bills wrapped around. they deserve everything coming to them.

and we deserved to win, even with that abominable 2nd half "display."

[alunevans]

Lucas was impressive today and I'm not his biggest fan by any means.

And Kuyt, considering that's his first game back from a long lay off - that was one hell of a shift he put in.

Kelly was great too. Hope he keeps his place even when Johnson is fit.

Fantastic second goal by Torres.

[Exiled_red]

Well done to Roy, I have been fairly critical of him previously in the season, but he did well today, getting the team to press higher up the pitch and not sitting too deep made a huge difference IMO (for the first half at least, I wasn't too made up with the way we played deeper 2nd half with two banks of 4 deep in our own half). If we were to play like this more often, we would be doing alot better.

[Shanks]

Our next three games are against three of the current bottom four. If we can continue our improvement and win them all, then things will really be looking good.

Confidence is starting to shine through now and with a few tweaks in Jan, there is no reason why we can't push on..

Can't believe how much we missed Kuyt's workrate..

This will count for nothing, if we don't get at least 7 out of the next 9 available..

[BigChief]

My jaw dropped when I saw we were only 10 points behind the league leaders. Number 19 FTW!!

Aim high, get second.

[Pablo]

I've given him some stick in the past but I thought Carragher was outstanding today.

[danperkins]

We're quick to slate Hodgson, but I felt he got it spot on today. Keep it up

[RichC]

my god this result has cheered me up, listening to fans of the rent boys banging on about how we're finished, no chance today and Torres couldn't hit the back of a bus!

I am going to take great pleasure at work tomorrow dishing some out for once and reminding them how Nando tore their back 4 a new one today!

[Robbie-fowler999]

Today was the first day of not smoking and to make things even worse some idiot crashed into my car.. Ive had a **** day but thanks to Liverpool i forgot all about how **** today was.

[-V-]

It was one of those games where I try to single out 1 player who played great and its very hard because they were all superb. Obviously Torres being absolutely world class made the difference but every other player was brill.
Lucas, Raul, Gerrard vs Mikel, Zhirkov,Ramires was the key battle we always have to be winning and we did so very well. Lucas was ****in vicious today