liverpool 2-0

Mirror:

Chelsea 2-0 Liverpool:

Didier Drogba puts the boot in on Liverpool

By Martin Lipton

Frustrating, ham actor, pain in the backside, someone who spends far too much of the time wincing and rolling about.
But above all, when it really counts, Dider Drogba is a force of nature, the player who transforms Chelsea from a decent side into a trophy-winning outfit.
And as Drogba put the boot into Rafa Benitez and Liverpool once again at Stamford Bridge, producing the two moments of magic that made the difference, he showed why every fan in the country would want the African leading the line for their team.
Without Drogba in Cyprus on Wednesday, Chelsea had been limp and listless, forcing Carlo Ancelotti into a dressing room rollicking and casting the first shadows above the Italian’s reign.
They have still not been blown away completely, yet when Drogba shrugged aside Jamie Carragher to set up Florent Malouda’s clincher in stoppage time, Ancelotti’s reaction showed how important this victory was - and not just in inflicting Liverpool’s third defeat in just eight games.
Going top, taking advantage of Manchester United’s slip-up against Sunderland and also preventing Benitez’s side leapfrogging over both of them, was the happy by-product of a win that Chelsea really needed to cast aside the kernels of doubt.
What really mattered, though, was sending out a marker of renewed intent, and as Fernando Torres chose the wrong afternoon to have an off day, Drogba’s contribution carried Ancelotti’s men over the finishing line.
Drogba still has to serve one match of his Champions League ban, and with the African Nations Cup to come, it might well be that Chelsea’s ambitions for the season are determined by what they do in the games when he is missing, rather than those in which he is present.
Yesterday, for once, it was Drogba - very much in Benitez’s personal firing line for his perpetual antics - as creator rather than scorer, but in key games, assists are truly worth their weight in gold.
And the game-breaker, an hour into a match that appeared set to become only the second goalless draw of the season to date, was indeed priceless.
Javier Mascherano was caught in possession by the back-tracking Frank Lampard and the next time Liverpool touched the ball, it was Pepe Reina picking it out of his own net.
Michael Essien fed Deco, who spotted Drogba racing up the left, dragging Martin Skrtel out of position and then playing the killer ball into the box early, catching Carragher off-guard.
The left-footed cross, low and perfect, begged for Nicolas Anelka to apply the final touch, a task the in-form French striker was delighted to accomplish, finally giving Chelsea the advantage they deserved.
Three times before that, Reina had been forced into saves, denying Michael Ballack - whose energy was important but who should have done better with a free header from Deco’s set-piece - Anelka and Michael Essien.
Liverpool, far too cautious - for all Benitez’s claims to the contrary - will look back on their own moments, two before the interval and a couple more in the last throes.
Certainly, on his normal form, Torres would have buried his header from Dirk Kuyt’s cross five minutes before the break, rather than directing at stand-in keeper Hilario, who then reacted well to turn aside Albert Riera’s free-kick.
But it was only after they went behind that Benitez belatedly threw away his cloak of inertia, sending on schemer Yossi Benayoun as Chelsea relied on John Terry’s formidable resolve and Ashley Cole’s athleticism.
Nine minutes from time, as Liverpool began to load the box, the opportunity came, and to the one player Benitez would have picked.
Benayoun’s cross found its way, via Kuyt and Steven Gerrard, to Torres 16 yards out, but his left-footer flew past the upright.
Stamford Bridge, sighing in relief, sensed the battle was won, confirmed in added time as Drogba, simply too strong for Carragher, bulldozed into the box to tee up substitute Malouda inside the six-yard box.
Benayoun should have scored from 12 yards and Gerrard was thwarted by Hilario in the final knockings, yet the die was now irrevocably cast.
For Chelsea and Ancelotti, the view from the top is clear and bright. For Liverpool, the summit they are peering up towards is getting further away even at this early stage.
They cannot afford any more such errors. Chelsea, by contrast, have emerged stronger from their first wobble. In Drogba they trust.

Chelsea: Hilario 7; Ivanovic 6, Carvalho 6, Terry 8, A Cole 7; Essien 6; Ballack 7, Lampard 7; Deco 6 (Malouda 76, 6); Anelka 7, Drogba 8

Liverpool: Reina 7; Johnson 7, Skrtel 6, Carragher 5, Insua 6 (Aurelio, 83, 6); Mascherano 6, Lucas 6 (Babel, 76, 6); Kuyt 7, Gerrard 7, Riera 5 (Benayoun, 67, 7); Torres

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The Times

Nicolas Anelka takes Chelsea back to the top of the Barclays Premier League

Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0
Oliver Kay, Stamford Bridge

Small details, according to Carlo Ancelotti and Rafael Benítez, are what decide football matches. It sounds like the ultimate truism, but, after two of the Barclays Premier League’s heavyweight teams had spent an hour trading punches at Stamford Bridge yesterday, one of them briefly let their guard down and, from that moment on, Chelsea and Liverpool seemed to be heading in opposite directions.
There was nothing between these teams until that point yesterday afternoon. If anything, Liverpool were the more assured, but then Javier Mascherano disappeared down a blind alley and was tackled by Frank Lampard. Within ten seconds the ball had gone from Michael Essien to Deco to Didier Drogba and finally to Nicolas Anelka, running in to score at the far post. Suddenly the momentum, in the title race as well as in this hitherto balanced encounter, was firmly with Chelsea.
Little wonder that John Terry and his Chelsea team-mates celebrated as joyously as they did at the end. It had been a tough slog, a serious test of their mettle after a week in which they had been soundly beaten by Wigan Athletic and unconvincing in victory over Apoel Nicosia in the Champions League, but they had emerged stronger, two points clear at the top of the table and six points clear of a Liverpool team whose title challenge is already faltering.
Eight days earlier, Terry had stormed out of the DW Stadium with a face like thunder, stopping only to share a withering appraisal of his team’s wretched performance in defeat. Here, though, they dug in, fought for every ball, retained their concentration throughout and, with Terry and his defensive colleagues standing firm at one end, Drogba was given all the invitation he needed at the other to set up the decisive goals for Anelka and, in stoppage time, Florent Malouda.
There is a tendency in Britain to focus unduly on the mental and the physical sides of the game, as opposed to the tactical or the technical, but some matches defy any other interpretation. This was Chelsea digging in, going back to the basics of the José Mourinho era and getting the basics right. Mourinho is no admirer of Ancelotti, going back to their rivalry as the respective coaches of Inter Milan and AC Milan last season, but he would have admired this performance — strong, resolute and, where Terry and Drogba were concerned, just too powerful for Liverpool.
Ancelotti called it an “important victory” and he was entitled to milk it far more than he did. The whisper in the build-up, given the abject nature of the loss away to Wigan, was that defeat would send the Italian’s regime into the same kind of tailspin that did for Luiz Felipe Scolari, one of his many recent predecessors.
The arrival of Roman Abramovich at the training ground on Friday had done little to dispel an air of apprehension around the club, but by last night the mood at Stamford Bridge was one of giddy excitement, further fuelled by Manchester United’s unexpected slip-up at home to Sunderland the previous evening.
It was not a day for Chelsea to demonstrate that they can be expansive, if indeed they can. Ancelotti may have sprung a surprise by giving Deco a rare run-out in his favoured role at the tip of the midfield diamond, but the little Brazilian-born Portgual player was as conspicuous as anyone by his workrate. At one point, just before half-time, he even won a 50-50 challenge with Steven Gerrard and, as he did, the feeling increased that Chelsea would be the team to manage a breakthrough.
Liverpool were not as bad as the scoreline suggests. For the most part, they kept Chelsea at arm’s length, with Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel more sure-footed in central defence than they had been in defeat away to Fiorentina in the Champions League. Skrtel, indeed, had a reasonable claim for a penalty rejected late in the first half, when he was pushed by Drogba at a set-piece, but ultimately Liverpool could not find a way through a resolute Chelsea defence, with Fernando Torres fading after a promising start.
But the moment that Mascherano turned into trouble on the hour, the complexion of the game changed. Having spent the opening weeks of the season sulking about Benítez’s refusal to sell him to Barcelona, Mascherano had been performing better yesterday, but his mistake in conceding possession to Lampard, albeit just inside the opposition half, was a bad one. Deco combined with Essien to send Drogba clear down the left-hand side and, when the cross was delivered, Anelka attacked the ball at the far post to give Chelsea the lead.
With Chelsea now happy to play on the counter-attack, Liverpool had the lion’s share of the possession as the belated introduction of Yossi Benayoun gave them a far more incisive look. Torres, though, was kept firmly in check by Terry and Carvalho. With nine minutes remaining, Gerrard saw a chink of light in a crowded penalty area, but when he managed to get his shot away, Terry, his England team-mate, threw himself in the way. Along with Mascherano’s mistake, it was the game’s defining moment.
England duty this week threatens to be an unhappy experience for Gerrard, the reminders constant in the form of Terry, Lampard and Ashley Cole, who excelled again yesterday. One-nil might have been bearable, but a second goal came in stoppage time when Drogba turned away from Carragher and rolled in another cross from which Malouda slid in to score.
Even then there was time for Benayoun to squander a clear opportunity and for Gerrard to see a fierce shot beaten away by Hilário, Chelsea’s previously untested reserve goalkeeper, before Stamford Bridge erupted into celebration at the final whistle.
Terry and his team-mates had ensured that the small details had gone their way and the bigger picture is that their sights are firmly on the title, leaving Benítez and Liverpool to contemplate anxious times ahead.

Chelsea (4-3-1-2): Hilário 7 B Ivanovic 5 R Carvalho 6 J Terry 8 A Cole 8 M Ballack 6 M Essien 7 F Lampard 6 Deco 6 D Drogba 7 N Anelka 6 Substitute: F Malouda (for Deco, 76min). Not used: R Turnbull, J Belletti, J Cole, Y Zhirkov, S Kalou, D Sturridge.

Liverpool (4-2-3-1): J M Reina 6 G Johnson 6 M Skrtel 6 J Carragher 6 E Insúa 6 J Mascherano 5 Lucas Leiva 6 D Kuyt 6 S Gerrard 6 A Riera 5 F Torres 6 Substitutes: Y Benayoun 7 (for Riera, 67min), R Babel (for Lucas, 76), F Aurélio (for Insúa, 83). Not used: D Cavalieri, D Agger, S Kyrgiakos, D Ngog.

Referee: M Atkinson Attendance: 41,732

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Telegraph:

Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0

Chelsea returned to the top of the Premier League on Sunday as goals from Nicolas Anelka and Florent Malouda clinched an impressive 2-0 win over Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.

Carlo Ancelotti's side opened up a two-point gap over second placed Manchester United. But perhaps more importantly, the victory over another of the main title contenders restored Chelsea to winning ways after their 3-1 defeat at Wigan last weekend.
After a tight first half, former Liverpool striker Anelka opened the scoring when he converted Didier Drogba's cross. Drogba was the provider again in stoppage time as he over-powered Jamie Carragher and crossed for Malouda to slide home.
Defeat leaves Liverpool six points behind Chelsea and Rafa Benitez's side have now lost three times in their first eight league games after losing just twice through the whole of last season.
Chelsea were without first-choice goalkeeper Petr Cech, who served his suspension following his red card against Wigan, so Hilario was between the posts.
But while Ancelotti's side were without Cech, they were buoyed by the return of Drogba.
The Ivory Coast striker missed the 1-0 win in the Champions League over Apoel Nicosia in midweek owing to his European ban.
Drogba's value to Chelsea is best illustrated by his return of six goals in seven league games going into this fixture.
And here he looked invigorated after his break when he chased down Deco's through-ball in the third minute forcing Carragher into a last-ditch tackle.
Although new to the English league, Ancelotti is no stranger to Liverpool. The Italian was manager of AC Milan in 2007 when they beat Liverpool 2-1 in the Champions League final in Athens - a victory that avenged Milan's defeat to the Reds in the final of the same competition in Istanbul two years earlier.
Benitez would love to repeat another victory in the Champions League this season and in striker Fernando Torres has a world-class player which would help him achieve it.
Torres, fresh from his hat-trick against Hull, has gone on record saying he is determined to end the club's three-year wait for a trophy.
And his team-mates looked to have taken that message on board as the visitors started this match the brighter with Steven Gerrard whipping in some dangerous crosses from the right.
But it was Chelsea who had the first shot on target in the 25th minute when Jose Reina was forced to save from Drogba's header.
Reina then needed to be alert moments later when Anelka tried his luck with a neat header. Chelsea midfielder Frank Lampard also tried his luck, but his free-kick from distance was a long way off target.
But just as Chelsea were beginning to find their feet in this match, Albert Riera's free-kick in the 43rd minute nearly squeezed past Hilario at the far post.
After the restart it was Chelsea who looked most likely to make the breakthrough, and so it proved in the 60th minute.
Anelka finished off a neat move after Lampard had disposed Javier Mascherano and fed Deco. The Portugal midfielder in turn played the ball for Drogba and his cross from the left was perfect for Anelka to poke home.
Drogba came close to adding a second with a long-range free-kick which skidded past Reina's right post. But substitute Malouda did add a second in the 90th minute when he turned in Drogba's cross at the far post.

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Independent:

Drogba creates havoc in dodgy Liverpool defence
Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0

By Sam Wallace, Football Correspondent

There comes a moment in the lifetime of every modern Chelsea manager when he must go through that most crucial rite of passage: beating Liverpool. Carlo Ancelotti did it at the first time of asking yesterday and up in the stand, the emperor of Stamford Bridge will have liked what he saw.
That was Roman Abramovich, wearing a grey cardigan that looked like a throwback to the days of perestroika and watching a Chelsea team that looked like a throwback to their 2006 vintage. These are early days for Ancelotti – and it will be a while yet until they start singing his name at Stamford Bridge – but this was a bold statement from a new manager, the kind that makes even a bored oligarch sit up in his seat.
Chelsea had not beaten Liverpool in the Premier League for more than three years before yesterday and the record was starting to get embarrassing. All the usual taunts about five European Cups and Liverpool's glorious past that are thrown at Chelsea when they play this old enemy can weigh heavy on the bad days. But they were easily dismissed yesterday.
There was a certain symbolism to this game for Ancelotti given that his predecessor one removed, Luiz Felipe Scolari, lost this fixture in October last year and never recovered. His regime in ruins, Scolari was sacked four months later, another Chelsea manager who left the club nursing a grievance about the remarkable defiance Rafael Benitez's Liverpool have shown Chelsea during the Abramovich years.
But Scolari and his downfall is in the past. Ancelotti will have been more troubled by last week's defeat to Wigan Athletic and what that said about his players and their season. Yesterday his team was impeccably organised and although they did not dominate every part of this match they were more ruthless in front of goal, stronger in defence and, with Deco at the point of their midfield diamond, more creative in the midfield.
No question who won the battle of two of the league's most celebrated centre-forwards. Didier Drogba did not score yesterday but he made both of Chelsea's goals, bludgeoning his way past no less a defender than Jamie Carragher to make the second goal for Florent Malouda. Yes, there was a lot of the old nonsense from the Chelsea striker, a lot of complaining, but he was unstoppable when it mattered.
It was not the same for Fernando Torres who had one of those afternoons when he was forced to survive on half-chances and never looked like scoring from any of them. Early in the game he raked his studs down John Terry's leg long after the ball had gone, a rare lack of composure from the Liverpool striker that suggested he was not entirely happy and, from there on, he got no better.
Never write off Benitez. It has become an immutable law of English football but this time the wily old boy has strapped one arm behind his own back as he attempts to make a challenge for the title this season. It is not beyond the realms of possibility that Liverpool can still win it with three defeats before the middle of October but it will not be simple. Chelsea will be a match for any team this season, and it is some consolation for Benitez that Manchester United and Arsenal are yet to play them.
It is a consistent refrain from the Liverpool manager that games are won and lost on the smallest of details. Never was he proved more correct than when Javier Mascherano dallied on the ball on the hour mark and lost it to Frank Lampard.
Lampard, industrious in a more defensive role, found Michael Essien, who found Deco, who found Drogba. Within seconds of Liverpool's Argentine midfielder losing the ball in the centre of midfield Drogba had picked out Nicolas Anelka at the back post for Chelsea's first goal. The balance of the game had changed in an instant and Liverpool were forced to commit more resources to attack in pursuit of an equaliser.
Until then, they had matched Chelsea for much of the game. But even with Ancelotti's side sitting back and allowing their opponents to attack them, Liverpool did not offer enough to open up a team as powerful as Chelsea. It takes something special to do that and from their players that can offer that spark – Torres, Steven Gerrard, even Yossi Benayoun – there was very little of note.
There was a spectacular tackle by Ashley Cole on Gerrard when, in the 75th minute, the Liverpool captain crept in behind the Chelsea defence and was about to shoot. From nowhere, or at least from the blindside of Gerrard, Cole came to stretch out a leg and take the power away from his shot. The left-back is in the form of his life and he was arguably Chelsea's most impressive player.
On the opposite side, Branislav Ivanovic was effective against the dire Albert Riera. Only once the game had reached the four minutes of added time did Liverpool fashion their best two chances, a volley that Henrique Hilario turned away with his first major save of the second half. Before then Benayoun, on as a substitute, found himself in space and missed with his shot inside the six-yard area.
By then Chelsea had scored their second in the 91st minute of the game. Drogba took a long ball on his chest in the right side of the area and, with Carragher behind him, managed to hold off the defender and go the long way round by the goal line. Carragher will probably cop most of the blame but when Drogba cut the ball back, Pepe Reina completely missed the cross which Malouda scrambled into the goal.
Fabio Capello took his seat just before kick-off but he did not get the chance to see Joe Cole who warmed up in vain. Ancelotti is certainly doing things his way, picking Deco was not something his immediate predecessor Guus Hiddink did a lot and few have made Anelka and Drogba work so well together. What was Abramovich thinking? At the very least that this manager should last in the job past February.
Chelsea (4-1-3-2): Hilario; Ivanovic, Carvalho, Terry, A Cole; Essien; Ballack, Deco (Malouda, 76), Lampard; Anelka, Drogba. Substitutes not used: Turnbull, J Cole, Zhirkov, Kalou, Sturridge, Belletti.
Liverpool (4-2-3-1): Reina; Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Insua (Aurelio, 83); Mascherano, Lucas (Babel, 76); Kuyt, Gerrard, Riera (Benayoun, 67); Torres. Substitutes not used: Cavalieri, Agger, Kyrgiakos, Ngog.
Referee: M Atkinson (Leeds).
Booked: Chelsea Essien; Liverpool Gerrard.
Man of the match: Drogba.
Attendance: 41,732.

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Guardian:

Nicolas Anelka sends Chelsea top with victory over Liverpool

Chelsea 2 Anelka 60, Malouda 90 Liverpool 0
Kevin McCarra at Stamford Bridge

Predictability was a delight for Chelsea. The side must reduce their opponents to fatalism when they have this durability and efficiency about them. Liverpool, eager as they were in the hunt for revival in the Premier League, were well contained. Hilario, deputising for a suspended Petr Cech, did not have an outstanding save to make until dealing with a Steven Gerrard effort in the last few moments.
It must, of course, be a pleasure to the manager, Carlo Ancelotti, that there is searing reliability to Didier Drogba these days. Once again he could not be denied and in this case he set up both goals. Liverpool's effort was great and they may therefore be all the more despondent that they have been defeated for the third time in the league, with October barely begun.
Rafael Benítez's side stand fifth in the table, but Manchester City will overtake them and Arsenal if they are not beaten at Villa Park this evening. The Liverpool manager has aimed to give his team a more enterprising air, but he has sacrificed more durability than he intended.
Chelsea have no cause to question their approach, since it has been effective for a long time. This was precisely the type of victory they have counted on ever since Jose Mourinho's time. Ancelotti cannot mind following in such footsteps since this win puts the club two points clear at the top of the Premier League.
There seems to have been too little money at his disposal for the Italian to put his imprint on the team. Then again, even stagnation could have been a delight so long as it meant Drogba was still on the payroll. The histrionics when he goes down, as he did here, and looks terribly wounded will annoy neutrals, but Chelsea fans can never have the slightest problem in ignoring that trait.
There are far more rewarding matters to occupy their minds. Liverpool were undone by the sheer fluency with which Chelsea broke for their opener after an hour. Once Frank Lampard had won the ball there was speed and intent on the break. Passes from Michael Essien and Deco took play down the left and Drogba's perfect low cross was converted by Nicolas Anelka at the far post.
The Ivorian was just as unsparing in stoppage time. His determination and finesse allowed him to roll the ball in from the right for the substitute Florent Malouda to snuff out any flickering hope in the visitors. This campaign, which includes last week's defeat away to Fiorentina in the Champions League, is turning into a trial for Liverpool.
Followers of the team will go on mourning the loss of Xabi Alonso to Real Madrid, but the irony is that this defeat offered some encouragement. The centre-back Jamie Carragher, for instance, was much better than he has been of late. Liverpool's midfield also had a degree of enterprise.
Chelsea, indeed, might be most gratified of all by their steeliness. Onlookers nearly forgot what a terror Fernando Torres has been recently. The centre-forward had been irrepressible in piling up eight league goals before he got to this ground. At Stamford Bridge, though, he was to be subdued by a defence in which John Terry dominated.
The Spain attacker did get an opportunity after 40 minutes but he headed a Dirk Kuyt cross well within the reach of Hilario. At that stage, Chelsea were similarly lenient. Anelka permitted Pepe Reina a much too simple save from his header after being picked out by Essien.
Ancelotti's side were seldom in jeopardy. In the last few moments of the first half, Albert Riera sought to score with a free-kick from 40 yards. The element of surprise may have been the only advantage he enjoyed, but Hilario was alert enough to tip that effort round the post.
Neither team could be considered outstanding. Ancelotti did not have to denounce his side as he had in the wake of defeat to Wigan and a tight victory over Apoel Nicosia, but he will still be wondering how he can sustain the slickness that was displayed only spasmodically by his squad here.
Benítez, too, has had it in mind to develop Liverpool. Perhaps he supposed he could take the final step that would give Anfield the championship for the first time since 1990, but the project is evidently at an early stage. The preference for attacking full-backs is laudable, yet the immediate requirement is for more solidity.
Ancelotti, to a degree, has been luckier. A side in decline under Luiz Felipe Scolari underwent remedial work during the caretaker management of Guus Hiddink. There were no immediate crises for Ancelotti to face, and his main regret must presumably be that he could add just one proven player, Yuri Zhirkov, to the squad.
That is not such a handicap given the means he inherited. A year or two from now, the need for rebuilding will be far more obvious, but this Chelsea team seems to have the means to press on with a potent bid for the title this season.

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Mail:

Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0:

Drogba the destroyer as one-man wrecking ball clears way for knockout blow

By Matt Lawton at Stamford Bridge

After all the talk of a gladiatorial encounter between the world’s two finest strikers here at Stamford Bridge, it turned out to be a case of cometh the hour, cometh the other bloke.
Nicolas Anelka it was who struck after 60 minutes with a goal to which Liverpool had no response. But it was still Didier Drogba who emerged as Chelsea’s one-man wrecking ball, smashing Liverpool’s defence into submission in a manner that seemed beyond Fernando Torres on this occasion.
Where Torres disappointed for Liverpool, Drogba was simply devastating for the new Barclays Premier League leaders, performing the role of creator and provider with a magnificent combination of strength, speed and skill.
It was a superb first-time cross that enabled Anelka to break the deadlock of a fiercely contested game; and a marvellous individual effort that then saw him escape the clutches of Jamie Carragher before delivering the ball to the feet of Florent Malouda, who increased the margin of victory in second-half stoppage time.
Drogba performed the dark arts of deception too, collapsing so frequently and so easily to the ground even John Terry appeared to suggest it might be prudent to try staying on his feet a bit more.
But Drogba was up for this. Up for the fight and and so pumped up Liverpool just could not cope. When the visitors reflect on their third defeat in eight Premier League matches and their second in a week after Tuesday’s 2-0 setback against Fiorentina in Florence, they will struggle to think of reasons to be optimistic.
They will remember how efficiently Michael Essien, Frank Lampard and Michael Ballack removed the threat of Steven Gerrard and how well Terry and Ricardo Carvalho dealt with Torres.
They will also have to recognise how ineffective they were in other areas, and the fact that Rafa Benitez came here with too many ordinary players.
Albert Riera, Lucas and Emiliano Insua are not individuals one can imagine securing the league title Liverpool so crave. Already it looks like a prize that is beyond Benitez’s team.
They are not the same side as last season, not least because of the absence of Xabi Alonso from their midfield. Results prove as much.
Last season they beat Manchester United and Chelsea home and away. This season they have lost at Tottenham and Chelsea and at home to Aston Villa, as well as in that chastening Champions League game against Fiorentina.
The contrast with Chelsea is staggering. Here are a team with balance, power and class, a team who have not been disrupted by the departure of key players and are now under the expert guidance of Carlo Ancelotti.
Defeat at Wigan the previous weekend did raise the obvious concerns. Was this going to be a repeat of last year, when some decent early-season form proved unsustainable under Luiz Felipe Scolari?
Were Chelsea once again wobbling under yet another new manager? The answer was an emphatic ‘no’ yesterday. The manner in which they crushed the ambition out of Liverpool and killed them off with a goal that was beautiful in its execution suggested that there is unlikely to be a crisis while Ancelotti is around.
Even in a relatively uneventful first half the pace of the game was ferocious, but Liverpool had no answer to the speed with which Chelsea executed their opening goal.
It was a terrific demonstration of one-touch football, a move that started with Lampard winning the ball off Javier Mascherano and finished, via Essien, Deco and Drogba, with Anelka converting his colleague’s delivery at full-stretch.
Only an Olympic sprinter would have got there with time to spare, so rapidly did Chelsea move the ball forward before Drogba crossed first-time with his left foot.
Anelka did well not just to finish but to escape the attention of Carragher, whose afternoon went from bad to worse when he then allowed Drogba to muscle past him for Chelsea’s second.
Spotting Malouda’s run, Drogba delivered another ball to the feet of a team-mate before turning away in celebration. Only once Chelsea were home and clear did Liverpool even begin to threaten Henrique Hilario’s clean sheet. Yossi Benayoun squandered one opportunity when he pulled a shot wide and Gerrard forced a fine save from Chelsea’s reserve goalkeeper with a sweetly struck half-volley.
It amounted to much too little, much too late for Liverpool. That is something of a recurring theme this season and evidence, along with the startling gulf in quality between the two benches, that says only one of these two sides will still be challenging for the title come next spring.

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Star:

DROG WINS BATTLE OF THE BRIDGE

By Danny Fullbrook

DIDIER Drogba won the battle of the super strikers in style yesterday.
There was so much anticipation before this game about who would come out on top between Drogba and Liverpool’s Fernando Torres.
And despite the Ivory Coast man’s amateur dramatics, Drogba won hands down.
This was a tight, defence-dominated game, but eventually it was the power and pace of Drogba that unlocked the door and took Chelsea soaring back to the top of the Premier League table.
Drogba is like marmite, you either love him or hate him.
One minute he is rolling around on the floor like he has been shot, but when he eventually means business he is unstoppable.
And that was how it proved yesterday at Stamford Bridge as this cat-and-mouse clash exploded on the hour.
Chelsea’s opening goal came about after Frank Lampard expertly dispossessed Javier Mascherano in the centre of the pitch.
Michael Essien then found Drogba bursting down the left and with a brilliant first- time cross Nicolas Anelka was given the opportunity to rifle the ball into the top of the Liverpool net.
It was a fantastic goal which emphasised the threat and pace of the front two.
Drogba’s ball was exquisite, while Anelka’s finish unerring. It was the Frenchman’s fifth of the season, and his second on the trot after scoring against Apoel Nicosia in midweek.
Anelka has admitted in the past that he would have loved to have stayed on at Liverpool when he was on loan, but Gerard Houllier let him go.
But he now says he has found his rightful home, and he is true to his word at the moment.
Chelsea’s second goal came in the dying embers of the game after they withstood any pressure that Liverpool could throw at them, and again Drogba was the catalyst.
Lampard played a free-kick into the corner as Chelsea looked to run time down as they had reached the 90th minute.
But Drogba was having none of it. He managed to turn Fabio Aurelio and Jamie Carragher inside out on the right wing as he bustled past the pair, despite a tug on his shirt.
Having reached the byeline he then crossed for sub Florent Malouda to bundle the ball home. Malouda was the scorer but it was all about Drogba.
By contrast Torres hardly got a sniff. Despite scoring a hat-trick against Hull last weekend, the whole team were disappointing against Fiorentina in midweek in the Champions League.
And this time the super Spaniard came up against a colossal defensive performance by John Terry.
There is a banner that decorates the Matthew Harding Stand at the Bridge which says: JT Captain, Leader, Legend.
And he lived up to every part of that yesterday.
Everywhere Torres went, Terry was there. El Nino got half a chance in the first half when he did get across the front post but his glancing header was easily held by Henrique Hilario who was in for the suspended Petr Cech.
Apart from that, Torres was starved of service.
There was one moment before Chelsea’s second when he perhaps could have scored. Steven Gerrard had shifted the ball on to his left foot inside the Chelsea area, and it was that man Terry who threw himself into the challenge to block his England team-mate.
The ball bobbled to Torres but he blazed his effort wide. And that was it from Liverpool’s main striker.
Liverpool had two other great chances to score, but only once Chelsea had already gone two goals ahead.
First Yossi Benayoun dropped his shoulder and found some space in the area, but somehow he rolled his effort past the far post.
Then right at the end, Gerrard hit a great strike which Hilario saved brilliantly.
Chelsea had had the better of a drab first-half with Michael Ballack, Anelka and Drogba all wasting half-chances, with perhaps the big German’s the best of the opportunities.
As for Liverpool, they had offered a lot of hustle and effort, but the only time they threatened Chelsea’s goal was when Albert Riera’s low free-kick was seen very late by Hilario and he turned it around the post.
Liverpool seemed by far the more dangerous outfit once Rafael Benitez brought on Benayoun.
The little Israeli recently scored a hat-trick against Burnley but for some reason was left out for Riera.
From Chelsea’s point of view, this was the perfect response for a slightly unsettling week.
They hate losing to Liverpool, and it was Benitez’s side which broke their record- breaking unbeaten league run last season.
At the final whistle the Chelsea players all hugged each other with Cech running on to the pitch to join in, and Terry was seen pumping his fist at the fans as he knew what it meant to pass their first real major test of the season.
Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti had told everybody not to get carried away with Chelsea losing to Wigan last weekend.
It looks like the Italian knows exactly what he is talking about.

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Sun:

Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0

SHAUN CUSTIS at Stamford Bridge

CARLO ANCELOTTI could enjoy a celebratory cigarette after this impressive victory took Chelsea top of the table.
But the manager was not the only one smoking at Stamford Bridge - Didier Drogba was on fire.
Chelsea's top-scorer may not have hit the net for a fourth straight Premier League game, but he was instrumental in this success and eclipsed his strike rival Fernando Torres, who failed to spark at all.
Drogba created goals for both Nicolas Anelka and sub Florent Malouda as he tormented Liverpool warhorse Jamie Carragher, who had no answer to the Ivory Coast hitman's pace and power.
He had his infuriating moments - rolling around complaining when he should have got on with the game - but his brilliance when he stayed on his feet overshadowed the theatrics.
There were other stars for Chelsea, too. John Terry was immense at the back, getting above Torres time and again to head decisively away from the danger area.
And behind the captain, Henrique Hilario, making his first league start for eight months because of Petr Cech's suspension, was outstanding in goal when Liverpool hoped he would be the weak link.
Not a bit of it. Hilario did everything asked of him, including two outstanding saves - one from an Albert Riera free-kick and a blinder at the death from Steven Gerrard.
You could see the relief on Ancelotti's face at the end of a difficult week.
Chelsea were soundly beaten 3-1 at Wigan before struggling to overcome APOEL Nicosia in the Champions League.
The Italian admitted he was not happy with either of those performances but this was much more to his liking and should keep owner Roman Abramovich off his back for a fortnight.
Abramovich flew into training last Friday to 'take a look at things' and immediately the rumours started that Ancelotti's position was under threat.
After all, the last time Abramovich ran the rule over training he sacked Big Phil Scolari within days.
Abramovich is expecting big things this season and he cannot ask for much more than to see Chelsea sitting top of the table.
Liverpool's last visit to Stamford Bridge produced a sensational 4-4 Champions League draw - but this was more physical, while chances were few and far between.
In the first half, particularly, it seemed both sides were scared to open it up for fear of losing - and this result certainly raises an awful lot of questions about Liverpool's title chances.
This was their third Premier League defeat in eight matches and came on the back of a disappointing display in losing to Fiorentina in midweek.
The out-of-sorts Torres had a golden opportunity on 40 minutes when Dirk Kuyt picked him out but the Spaniard's attempted header seemed to come off his nose and it bounced down apologetically into Hilario's arms.
A minute before the break, Michael Essien - who was strong in the holding role - got a little excitable and took out Lucas.
From the free-kick, Riera's 35-yard effort somehow found a way through a raft of bodies and Hilario did well to react and turn it round the post.
The resulting corner saw Drogba grab Martin Skrtel's shoulder and push the centre-back to ground but referee Martin Atkinson waved away penalty claims - much to the annoyance of Rafa Benitez.
The Reds boss was even more upset when Chelsea took the lead on the hour after Essien robbed the dithering Javier Mascherano.
The ball broke to Deco, who fed Drogba down the left. The Ivorian's cross was a belter - curling across the six-yard box away from Pepe Reina and on to the outstretched right boot of Anelka, who gleefully converted.
Liverpool battled for an equaliser and Gerrard worked an opening but the moment he pulled back his left foot, Terry flung himself forward and blocked the shot.
Chelsea made it two in injury time as Drogba beat Fabio Aurelio and Carragher to muscle his way into the box. Carragher pulled Drogba back by his shirt but the Blues striker was in full flow and his low cross was buried by Malouda.
Liverpool could still have mounted an unlikely comeback as sub Yossi Benayoun missed a sitter, rolling a shot wide of the post with the goal gaping. Then Hilario pounced to his right to beat away Gerrard's volley.
So, a job well done by Chelsea but it will be an uncomfortable international break for Benitez as the inquest into Liverpool's performances gathers momentum.