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Times; Mourinho moves on to the formalities By Matt Hughes Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0 JOSÉ MOURINHO TREATED HIS musical hero, Bryan Adams, to a tour of Stamford Bridge recently, but last night found himself humming The Final Countdown by Europe. After sprinting away from the rest of the field, Chelsea have reached the finishing straight of the Barclays Premiership title race by the start of February. They still need eight more victories to secure their second successive title, although with a 15-point lead over Manchester United it is little more than a formality. On present form they will receive the trophy after a home game against West Ham United on April 9, a fitting reward for Frank Lampard, John Terry and Joe Cole, the Eastenders who have adopted starring roles in the West End. As Mourinho delighted in pointing out, this victory over the side threatening to become their closest rivals encapsulated all the qualities that make Chelsea such worthy champions; comfortable and clinical yet some way short of thrilling. This was their season in microcosm. "We need eight wins to be champions and after that it will be seven, six, five," Mourinho said. "We’re in the countdown. We want to win these games as soon as possible." Still bitter about last season’s Champions League exit and with José Manuel Reina’s late sending-off creating another controversy, Mourinho could not resist crowing about his head-to-head record against Rafael Benítez. The Portuguese has won all four of the league games he has contested against Liverpool and this season’s aggregate scoreline is a flattering 6-1. "After nine games against Liverpool in 1½ years we’ve lost one," he said. "The game proves we’re the best team in the country. This is a result and a performance that will help everyone to understand why we’re champions and are close to being champions again." Liverpool came into the game still harbouring genuine title aspirations, though for all their dramatic improvement under Benítez, the European champions remain a work in progress. Despite controlling much of the first half the threat to Petr Cech’s goal was minimal, with Chelsea content to strike on the counter. The source of their opening goal may have surprised many, but not Mourinho, who repeatedly sings the praises of William Gallas, surely one of the most underrated players in the Barclays Premiership. Such is his determination to incorporate the Frenchman into his side that he has played him in different positions in each of the past three matches, alongside Terry the one constant in an ever-changing back line. Given his excellent goal yesterday, a poacher’s finish in the six-yard box, perhaps he should consider giving Hernán Crespo a rest and moving him up front. Gallas has moaned about this dizzying rotation but seemed happy enough yesterday, running to celebrate with Mourinho on the touchline after giving his side the lead. After a typically classy start at right back he outwitted another utility player, Jean Arne Riise, ghosting in from the back post to meet Ricardo Carvalho’s knockdown from Frank Lampard’s corner . Liverpool had made the better start, with Peter Crouch giving Terry a torrid time, but the goal was a setback from which they never recovered. Joe Cole should have doubled Chelsea’s lead a minute later, shooting into the side-netting after dispossessing Stephen Warnock, and Crespo found the target just before half-time only to be ruled offside by Gavin Ward, the fresh-faced linesman. It proved to be only a temporary respite. Liverpool upped the tempo at the start of the second half, though their perspiration was not matched by sufficient inspiration, with Gerrard’s cross-field ball to the head of Crouch increasingly predictable. Chelsea have a greater variety of attacking options and, without using them to the full, still had too much for Liverpool. After injuries ruined the start of his season Arjen Robben is returning to his best, with only his finishing letting him down. Crespo was not to be denied for long, however, running on to Asier Del Horno’s through-ball in the 68th minute before applying a crisp finish. Didier Drogba may be missed, but with the Argentina striker adding his eleventh goal of the season, Chelsea are clearly coping. Robben had further opportunities, but his most notable contribution was to fly to the ground after the slightest contact from Reina, with the Spain goalkeeper being sent off. The Premier League should instruct the engravers to carve Chelsea’s name on to their trophy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Telegraph: Crespo shines in Chelsea parade By Henry Winter at Stamford Bridge Chelsea (1) 2 Liverpool (0) 0 Twenty-one points clear of Liverpool, Jose Mourinho has the key to the door of another Premiership party in the pocket of his elegant overcoat. Fifteen points clear of second-placed Manchester United, Chelsea could well be travelling to their Easter fixtures on an open-top bus. Blue heaven: Hernan Crespo celebrates his goal This league victory, their 50th in 18 months under Mourinho's inspirational stewardship, showed why Chelsea will be champions again. John Terry, ready for every challenge, embodied the team's immense capacity for hard work. Hernan Crespo, full of intelligent movement, displayed the finisher's art that Liverpool lack. Added to William Gallas' first-half strike, Crespo's goal sent waves of frustration rolling through visiting hearts and minds. Xabi Alonso appeared more intent on settling old scores with Michael Essien and Frank Lampard than sweeping the ball around with his usual sumptuous ease. The gathering darkness enveloped Liverpool nine minutes from time. Pepe Reina, usually such a calm figure between the posts, came hurtling out and clattered into Eidur Gudjohnson, earning a deserved caution. Worse ensued. When Arjen Robben made some sly remark, Liverpool's Spanish goalkeeper raised his hands and gave the Chelsea attacker the lightest of pushes in the face. If Reina's act was inexcusable, Robben's reaction was disgraceful. The Dutch flyweight collapsed in a theatrical manner reminiscent of referee Paul Alcock in the Paolo Di Canio affair. If Chelsea want to be truly admired, rather than just respected, they have to eradicate such deceitful conduct as Robben's. He has too many qualities to stoop to such depths. Catching fire towards the end, when Robben tumbled and Reina walked, this game only smouldered in a scrappy opening period when Liverpool were the livelier. Sami Hyypia headed wide from a Steven Gerrard corner. Peter Crouch hinted at menace in the air, twice going close, but was mastered on the deck by Terry. Set plays looked Liverpool's most promising avenue. Chelsea's creative department was struggling to parade their wares. No wonder the home fans chanted the name of Gianfranco Zola, sitting next to Roman Abramovich. Sterility ruled, any attempts at fluid movement sticking in a pitch increasingly resembling the Thames at low tide. Fittingly, Chelsea's 34th-minute goal came from a defender at a corner, the hosts exploiting a lapse of concentration by Liverpool. When Lampard drilled in a corner kick from the right, Ricardo Carvalho redirected the ball in towards Gallas. John Arne Riise was supposed to be marking the French full-back but became distracted, allowing Gallas to hook the ball between Reina and Stephen Warnock. Liverpool were shaken, Chelsea stirred. The champions could have seized another within two minutes. Warnock sought to dribble away from Joe Cole but the Chelsea midfielder's persistence brought reward, the inexperienced Liverpool left-back caught painfully in possession. Cole's drive found only the side-netting. The Blues were now in the mood, with Crespo only fractionally offside as he tapped in a fumble by Reina. Liverpool's one unaddressed flaw under Rafa Benitez was soon seen again. They create chances but lack a serial finisher. After 50 minutes, Gerrard clipped in the most enticing of left-footed crosses that cried out for a finishing touch. With Robbie Fowler working on his fitness back at Melwood, and Benitez surely now ruing not bringing back Michael Owen, Liverpool were overly reliant on midfield for attempts on goal. No chance. Lampard, Essien and Claude Makelele stifled visiting surges. Crouch became as isolated as a remote lighthouse surrounded by miles of forbidding deep blue sea. The force was with Chelsea. Crespo's clever runs were dragging Carragher and Hyypia all over the place. Only brilliant awareness and agility saw Carragher head a cross clear as Crespo prowled. But the predator from the Pampas was not to be denied for long. After 68 minutes, Carragher headed out a Terry ball only for Asier Del Horno to lift the ball back in. Having stolen a yard, Crespo met the ball sweetly with his left foot, which he placed superbly across Reina and in. It was over bar the shouting. Chelsea fans began taunting Liverpool. "Have you ever seen Gerrard win the league," their fans inquired of the midfielder who twice spurned Mourinho'. "Where were you in Istanbul?" responded the travelling army. But this defeat, and confirmation of Chelsea's domestic dominance, will have hurt Gerrard. He stood by Jamie Carragher at the end and a pair of home-grown players must have wondered how they can catch Chelsea in the Premiership. Yesterday Mourinho's men slammed the door on any chance of any rivals crashing their pending Premiership party. • Man of the match: John Terry (Chelsea). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Independent: Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0: Crespo's crushing form and Reina red card hit Liverpool By Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent Published: 06 February 2006 By the time that the Liverpool goalkeeper Jose Reina went straight through the legs of Eidur Gudjohnsen and then slapped Arjen Robben in the face to ensure a red card, the battle for Rafael Benitez's team was already lost, the Premiership title as good as decided. The true picture of the balance of power between these sides did not lie in a petty stand-off nine minutes from time, but the awesome details of Chelsea's dominance. The goals came from William Gallas and Hernan Crespo and they leave the Premiership champions 15 points clear of Manchester United in second place and 21 ahead of Liverpool. The European champions had their very last chance to slow the procession yesterday, but they ended simply adding their names to the long list of victims that have fallen by the way on Chelsea's march to the title. The ankle injury he was dealt against West Ham on 2 January meant that Michael Essien never made the trip to the African Nations' Cup in Egypt and, with Ghana now eliminated, he is eligible to play for his club side once again. But it was far too convenient not to arouse suspicion that as the tournament draws to a close, Essien yesterday made his recovery from fitness just in time to face Liverpool. Jose Mourinho will doubtless pass the credit to a medical department at Chelsea that is under intense pressure to rehabilitate players from injury as rapidly as possible - and the Ghana football federation will have little choice but to accept that verdict. The timing for them, however, will hurt the most. Essien came back into a team that has won just once in the three Premiership games they have played since his absence. The final part of a drama in four acts involving these two clubs this season - unless they meet again in the Champions' League - and there was precious little sign that either Rafael Benitez or Jose Mourinho were about to liberate their sides from their strict tactical regime. Only one striker committed to attack in either side and two midfields packed with muscle, it was Liverpool who held the balance of power right up to the Chelsea's first goal on 34 minutes. Peter Crouch was the man most likely to tip the game in Liverpool's favour, clattering into Petr Cech twice and, as is his way, full of apologies afterwards. Few strikers have the advantage of towering over John Terry when they wait for corner kicks and Crouch put the Chelsea captain under the kind of pressure to which he is not accustomed as well as bloodying the brow of Cech. Terry did enough in the 24th minute to unsettle Crouch when he lunged at Sami Hyypia's knock-back across the face of the goal although the England defender was not at his composed best. Alongside Chelsea's owner, Roman Abramovich, in the best seats at Stamford Bridge, was Gianfranco Zola. He wore a broad grin every time the camera settled on him, Abramovich looked more pensive. With good reason, because the impeccably drilled Liverpool team, constantly being reorganised by Benitez on the touchline, had locked Chelsea's two wingers, Joe Cole and Arjen Robben, in their own half. It was telling that when Cole finally broke free on the right and won a close decision on a corner that Liverpool's problems began and William Gallas scored 11 minutes before the break. From the corner, Ricardo Carvalho won a difficult header at the back of the area and the ball fell to Gallas six yards out who, with his back to goal, hooked the ball back and into the net. It was a blow that Liverpool scarcely deserved, and Stephen Warnock's slip two minutes later almost condemned them to defeat before the half was over. Cole seized on possession but, to the fury of Mourinho, struck his shot wide of the near post. On the stroke of half-time, Hernan Crespo had a goal disallowed for offside to howls of protest from his team-mates towards the linesman, Gavin Ward, who, in appearance, looked closer to the age of the ball-boys than the players. The official stood his ground and replays revealed his decision to be absolutely correct. Crouch failed to get on the end of a Gerrard cross and Cech pushed out a shot from the Liverpool captain, but as the away side's desperation increased it was Chelsea who strengthened their grip on the game. Robben went past Jamie Carragher, but Reina flicked his shot wide. In the 68th minute, Crespo timed his run on to the end of Asier Del Horno's flick and launched a perfectly executed volley into the far corner of Reina's net. At two goals down, Benitez had no option but to switch his side's taut defensive formation into a 4-3-3 attacking system. Chelsea swept them away. Damien Duff came on and then off with what looked like a strain to his leg. Then, on 81 minutes, Reina chased Eidur Gudjohnsen out to the right wing and launched a clumsy tackle. As he was called over by the referee, Alan Wiley, the Spanish goalkeeper thrust a hand into the face of Robben, who made sure that he exploited the moment for all it was worth. Down to 10 men, with Jerzy Dudek in goal, Liverpool crumbled. Only a fine saving tackle from Steven Gerrard stopped Robben as he broke into the area with one minute remaining. It was to the Liverpool captain that the home fans' taunts were aimed in the last few minutes of the game. Gerrard's Liverpool team may have made enormous progress under Benitez but they still have a distance to travel to catch Mourinho's Chelsea. Goals: Gallas (34) 1-0; Crespo (6 2-0; Chelsea (4-1-4-1): Cech; Gallas, Carvalho, Terry, Del Horno; Makelele (Diarra, 84); J Cole (Duf,f 74; Gudjohnsen, 79), Lampard, Essien, Robben; Crespo. Substitutes not used: Cudicini (gk), Huth. Liverpool (4-4-1-1): Reina; Finnan, Hyypia, Carragher, Warnock; Gerrard, Sissoko (Cissé, 74), Alonso, Riise (Garcia, 61; Dudek, 84); Kewell; Crouch. Substitutes not used: Morientes, Traoré. Referee: A Wiley (Staffordshire). Booked: Chelsea Essien; Liverpool Garcia, Alonso. Sent off: Reina. Man of the match: Carvalho. Attendance: 42,316 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chelsea crush contenders as Reina sees red and Crespo walks the line Kevin McCarra at Stamford Bridge Monday February 6, 2006 The Guardian If it is a fine line that separates champions from contenders, then no one walks it with more precision than Hernán Crespo. The Argentinian once more showed the poise of a tightrope walker to stop himself from tumbling into an offside position as he clinched victory with Chelsea's second goal. The flag was wrongly raised against him a minute later as he netted again and, considering the delicate calibration with which he judges a run, officials must sometimes be tempted to take it on trust that he is exactly where he ought to be. Even if the striker had to spend much of the afternoon roving and waiting for his moment, he did add distinction to a moderate game. Chelsea will be happy to turn their backs on any debate about the exact level of their performance when they have shown, after three draws in all competitions, that they retain the knack of winning on the major occasions. Jose Mourinho's side, with a first clean sheet in seven fixtures, are now 21 points ahead of third-placed Liverpool and 15 in front of their notional pursuers Manchester United. The numbers are really important only to those who wish to estimate the date when the retention of the title will be confirmed. The visitors were in dishevelled condition at the close. The goalkeeper José Reina was sent off after an altercation in the 81st minute. He burst from his box to tackle the substitute Eidur Gudjohnsen from behind near the corner flag and the challenge was dangerous even though he made contact with the ball. In the squabble that followed the Spaniard turned back, in response to some comment, and gave Arjen Robben a rather gentle push in the face, the Dutchman keeling over as if assaulted. The behaviour constituted violent conduct and the red card from the referee Alan Wiley was not a surprise. It was a piece of indiscipline which conveyed the exasperation of a line-up which has a capable air but cannot capitalise on phases of domination. As in last month's defeat at Old Trafford, the humdrum nature of the Liverpool attackers was a severe limitation. With Robbie Fowler left out while he works on his fitness, imagination and sharpness were scarce. Though Petr Cech pulled off one fine block that denied Steven Gerrard an equaliser in the second half, his principal concern had been a facial cut which demonstrated the character of Liverpool's endeavours. They had no intention of being unsporting, but the players could do no more than set up challenges with the defenders and the goalkeeper when they lacked an elusive striker such as Crespo. A characteristic episode would see a strapping footballer such as Peter Crouch or Sami Hyypia stretching to skew a header off-target. Those denouements were tormenting for Liverpool since they had outplayed Chelsea in the opening 20 minutes. Claude Makelele was not disconnecting the visitors' attacks as he would later and Liverpool's bank of attacking midfielders got into position to feed off Crouch's lay-offs. The much-improved Ricardo Carvalho had to be vigilant to pull off key interventions. A subdued Chelsea endured and went ahead with a goal that rekindled the debate about Rafael Benítez's preference for zonal marking. Joe Cole won a corner on the right after 35 minutes and Frank Lampard fired it deep. The ball sailed over Hyypia and Carvalho knocked it down so that William Gallas could turn near the six-yard line and finish. Two minutes later Cole dispossessed Stephen Warnock, who presumed that he could turn with the ball. The attacker then shot into the side-netting from an angle, enraging Mourinho, who expected Cole to set up a team-mate with the selfless efficiency demanded of this side. Chelsea were close to extending their lead in the 43rd minute but Crespo, in an extremely rare lapse, was offside when he capitalised on Reina's fumbling of a John Terry header. Liverpool believed for a while that they could recover and Gerrard, in the 50th minute, beat Michael Essien and Gallas on the left before his low cross flew through the six-yard box. Crespo, though, was to end the contest. Jamie Carragher headed out a free-kick and Asier del Horno played a pass into the left of the area for the arch-predator. The angle was difficult and so was the bouncing ball, but the first-time shot into the far corner was flawless. Such technique came as a relief after some eagle-eyed decision-making by the linesman in the first half had threatened to make him the man of the match.