Allardyce-esque Mourinho parks two buses to derail Liverpool's title bid

Two parked buses blocked the path to number 19 and directed Liverpool’s title challenge down a worrying diversion yesterday. 

Facing the immovable object of a stubborn Chelsea defence, the irresistible force that is Liverpool’s attack was found wanting. The Reds had 73% possession, 26 shots to Chelsea’s 11 and took eleven more corners than their visitors but were second best in the statistic that matters most; goals scored.

It wasn’t for a lack of trying from Liverpool, however. The majority of the match was consumed with relentless pressure from the hosts, who were frustrated throughout the 90 minutes by a Chelsea side instructed by boss Jose Mourinho to employ every underhand tactic in the book to disrupt the Merseysiders’ momentum and spoil the game as a spectacle.

Mourinho didn't want his team to play football

Time-wasting from the first to the final whistle, the Blues took an age to take every single set piece and remained on the floor for as long as possible whenever one of their players was fouled. Perhaps just as frustratingly, the Londoners adopted anti-football tactics.

Routinely putting ten men behind the ball and playing with a back six at times, Chelsea left Liverpool’s attacking players absolutely no space whatsoever to weave their magic and clearly had no intention of producing any creative football at the other end of the pitch either. It was the type of football West Ham manager Sam Allardyce would have been proud to play.

Providing a master class in how to play on the counter-attack, Chelsea broke away from their defensive shell to score in injury time at the end of both halves. The cruel irony of Chelsea scoring during injury time that was awarded to compensate Liverpool for the Blues’ time-wasting was almost as painful as watching Steven Gerrard slip to let in Demba Ba to net the crucial opener on the stroke of half time. At least traitorous former Liverpool forward Fernando Torres didn’t score on his return to Anfield, the Spaniard mercifully squaring for Willian to deliver the sucker punch in the dying seconds.

Anticipating another epic Liverpool-Chelsea encounter, Anfield was on top form prior to kick-off, delivering a rousing rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. Unfortunately, Liverpool failed to deliver the sort of start to the game expected by their supporters.

Wary of how Arsenal, Man City, Tottenham and Everton were blown away in the opening stages when they visited Anfield, Mourinho’s men focused all of their efforts on restricting Liverpool’s sights of goal and quieting the crowd.

They succeeded in achieving their aim, as Coutinho shooting into the side-netting and Sakho blazing over the bar when well-placed were arguably the best goalscoring opportunities Liverpool managed to create during an immensely frustrating first half.

Tomas Kalas, the young Czech centre back thrown in against Luis Suarez for his Premier League debut, was putting in a decent display as part of a well-functioning and difficult to break down defence, while stand-in stopper Schwarzer was saving everything Liverpool fired in his direction from distance.

Towards the end of the first half the Blues even began creating some goalscoring opportunities of their own, Salah complaining after Atkinson rejected his appeals for a penalty when his shot struck Flanagan on the hand and Kalas squandering a gilt-edged opportunity as he skewed a free header wide in front of the Kop.

Three minutes into injury time a mistake from Liverpool and a stroke of luck for Chelsea allowed them to score the opener that they would then cling on to for dear life during the second half. Receiving a square pass from Sakho, Gerrard agonisingly slipped at the crucial moment and Ba capitalised, running through on goal and finishing underneath Mignolet to punish the distraught Gerrard. Desperately trying to make up for his mistake, Gerrard attempted long-range wonder strikes repeatedly in the second half to no avail.

The gutted Gerrard looks on as Chelsea celebrate the opener

On the hour mark, Rodgers introduced former Chelsea striker Daniel Sturridge from the bench, replacing Lucas who, despite ably deputising for Henderson alongside Allen in midfield, lacks match sharpness and is a different sort of player to the energetic, all-action Henderson. The Reds really missed the suspended number 14 yesterday as his boundless energy could have helped unlock Chelsea’s defence.

The best chance Liverpool had to equalise came when Joe Allen fired a stunning volley goalwards, but frustratingly Schwarzer was there to make another tremendous stop, clawing the ball out of the bottom corner to deny the Welshman his first goal of the season

Schurrle responded for Chelsea, Mignolet repelling his curled shot, but the 23-year old German was replaced by centre half Gary Cahill with twelve minutes remaining, as Chelsea stubbornly refused to move their two parked buses.

Struggling to infiltrate and get behind the Blues’ packed backline, the Reds resorted to long range efforts on goal, the best of which came from Steven Gerrard, whose shot was gathered at the second attempt by the goalkeeper.

Crucially, the home side were bereft of options from the bench. Rodgers threw on Aspas in place of Flanagan for the final ten minutes, but Liverpool’s substitutes bench couldn’t compare with Chelsea’s, which, despite including a couple of youngsters, was occupied by the likes of Willian, Torres and Cahill, players who cost the Blues roughly £90 million.

Annoyingly, Aspas’ only contribution during the closing stages was to nonsensically decide to play a short corner, which went straight to a Blue shirt anyway!

Suarez saw his first shot of the game saved by Schwarzer in injury time but there was just no way through for Liverpool and, with seconds left on the clock, Chelsea delivered the sucker punch, an interception on the halfway line allowing Torres to run through on goal unopposed. Thankfully he didn’t score himself, instead opting to square to Willian, who passed the ball into an empty net.

Willian and Torres celebrate Chelsea's second

It was a horrible way to end a disappointing and frustrating afternoon.

As frustrating as Chelsea’s tactics were, they were actually a compliment to Liverpool, as they amounted to a tacit admission that the Blues are nowhere near as good at playing football as the Reds. They won merely because of Mourinho’s remarkable ability to park buses.

In addition, Liverpool have to get used to teams playing like Chelsea did, since that is what they will continue to come up against in the future as they develop into a strong, attack-minded team. Rodgers’ summer homework will be to develop a plan B to help the Reds win games when parked buses frustrate their usually irresistible plan A.

The title race is now out of Liverpool’s hands because if Man City win their remaining three games then they will almost certainly be crowned champions on goal difference. Expect the Premier League to throw up some twists and turns yet, though, and remember the words of our famous anthem: ‘Though your dreams be tossed and blown, walk on with hope in your heart’.

YNWA