liverpool 1-1

Independent:

Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1

Liverpool's Luis Suarez proves a man apart as Chelsea lose ground at the top
Sam wallace

Luis Suarez celebrated his equaliser alone in front of the travelling Liverpool support, his team-mates electing to head back into their own half and prepare for the onslaught of the last 20 minutes of the match.
As it turned out, the image of a man apart suits Liverpool’s leading striker rather well.
He has scored in his last four games for Liverpool, 11 in all this season, although his club have won just one of those nine matches in which he has scored. Without him yesterday, they would have lacked the sharp edge to open up their opponents and been unable to turn a fairly forgettable first-half performance into a draw. Every time he received the ball a world of possibilities opened up.
With a nudge in the back of Ramires to create the space to score, Suarez bought himself enough room to head in a corner from Suso that was flicked on at the near post by Jamie Carragher on 72 minutes. The Uruguayan was not the only decent performer in a Liverpool second half  – Steven Gerrard, Raheem Sterling and Glen Johnson all played well  – but it always felt like if a goal was to come, it would come from Suarez.
When Brendan Rodgers says that he would not change Suarez for any other player you can see his point. In fact, this current Chelsea team with Suarez rather than Fernando Torres as their leading striker would be a whole different package. As it is, the European champions have now slipped to third in the Premier League behind the usual suspects from Manchester after the brightest of starts to the season.
Torres worked hard yesterday, especially when it came to chasing down Liverpool’s midfielders, but there is not the same menace about him as there is about Suarez when he gets the ball. Suarez might even have won it for Liverpool with four minutes of the game left had Petr Cech not succeeded in closing him down and getting a toe to the ball which cannoned back off the Liverpool man.
On 35 minutes, it was Suarez who fell on top of John Terry’s right leg, causing the Chelsea captain’s knee to twist unnaturally. Having scored the first goal of the game, Terry, on his return from his four-match suspension for the racial abuse of Anton Ferdinand, went down in the kind of distress that you rarely see from the breed of old-school centre-backs to which he belongs.
Eventually they carted the Chelsea captain off on a stretcher and he will have a scan on that knee today to assess the extent of the damage. At the point that he left the game it was hard to imagine anything other than a Chelsea victory, but gradually Liverpool fought their way back into the game and after Suarez scored the equaliser they might even have won it. With a five-man defence, with Carragher at the centre of it, Rodgers’ side struggled in the first half, not least from the corner that Terry scored from. On that occasion, Daniel Agger and Johnson – marking Terry and Branislav Ivanovic – got themselves tangled up and allowed the Chelsea captain to steer his header in off Brad Jones’s left-hand post.
In midfield, Joe Allen found himself caught in possession too often. Alongside him, Nuri Sahin was not a profound influence on the game, certainly not in comparison with the likes of Juan Mata and, to a lesser extent, Oscar in the first half. Mata’s delicate touch on the ball was evident every time it was at his feet, which was not quite enough from Chelsea’s point of view.
In time added on at the end of the first half, Mata slipped the ball through Andre Wisdom’s legs and then struck his shot over. Before then Torres and Eden Hazard had missed chances when another goal from Chelsea would have put the game out of sight. Liverpool hung on, and with Suarez there was always hope.
Rodgers changed his team to a more orthodox 4-4-2 in the second half, with Suso on in place of Sahin after the hour and Sterling pushed up alongside Suarez. The goal came when Carragher did well at the near post to flick the ball back across goal and Ramires allowed himself to be eased out of position by Suarez.
The draw gives Rodgers 12 points from his first 11 games. He will not want reminding that Roy Hodgson, his much-maligned predecessor who came before Kenny Dalglish, had 15 points at this stage of the 2010-2011 season with his 11th game in charge yielding three points at home to Chelsea. Liverpool are currently in 13th place, level on points with Stoke City but it is not as bad as it could have been. That is down, in no small measure, to Suarez, whose instincts got Liverpool out of a fix again.
At the end of the game, once the stadium had cleared, Didier Drogba came down from his executive suite and walked down the tunnel wearing the kind of thick black spectacles that he never required to locate the opposition’s goal in his eight years at the club.
Chelsea still miss his presence – which team would not? – and while Torres’s performances are marginally improved he is still not the answer. The striker was not happy to be substituted for Daniel Sturridge yesterday, although it was the right decision. What Chelsea really needed from their No 9, what Drogba provided on so many occasions was the killer blow, the second goal, but it never came.
After the stadium had cleared, Terry emerged from the tunnel on crutches and proceeded to cross the pitch slowly on his way to the exit. In the past his injury would have been a concern for the England manager but those days are over. Nowadays there is just Chelsea for him, and he will know better than most that they had enough chances to win this game before Suarez intervened.


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Guardian:

Wasteful Chelsea are held by Liverpool after Luis Suárez equaliser

Dominic Fifield

The onset of winter is freezing Chelsea's title pursuit yet again. Points were wastefully shed to Liverpool here, the celebratory mood that had briefly flared when John Terry marked his return from domestic suspension with a first goal of the season doused long before the end. The captain now faces a spell in rehabilitation after sustaining a knee injury. Quite what state this team's Premier League challenge will be in when he returns remains to be seen.
The last fortnight has damaged Roberto Di Matteo, the momentum generated over the campaign's early weeks checked by defensive fragilities which have restricted his team to two points from three league games. Chelsea are not quite in the downturn that set in around this time last year under André Villas-Boas. Neither are they yet in the three-month slump that Carlo Ancelotti infamously christened a "bad moment" but failed to allay in 11 matches the previous season, or the stutter that became a stumble under Luiz Felipe Scolari in late 2008. But scintillating form has quickly given way to stodgy results, and the four-point advantage they enjoyed at the top a fortnight ago has swiftly been surrendered.
Theirs has admittedly been a daunting recent schedule, a period that coincided with Terry's four-match suspension, but they will hardly relish Saturday's trip to The Hawthorns where West Bromwich Albion have proved so imposing. It is the vulnerability, combined with over-complication among their host of attack-minded players, that has undermined them most critically. If chances are passed up, as they were, anxiety tends to set in with memories of the side's last clean sheet, against Nordsjaelland in early October, fading fast. Liverpool mustered only two shots on target and yet improved second-half urgency, provoked by a tactical tweak but reliant upon Chelsea's shortcomings, ensured they departed with a point.
It was picked up 17 minutes from time, the substitute Suso's corner flicked on by Jamie Carragher – on his first Premier League start of term – at the near-post for Luis Suárez, having subtly eased himself clear of Ramires, to nod into the gaping net. The visitors are unbeaten in six but continue to rely on their Uruguayan, with this his eighth league goal in 973 minutes this season when the same goal tally had taken him 2,192 last year. Branislav Ivanovic had initially shackled him well but Suárez's slippery threat endured. "He's an amazing player, and key to us," said José Enrique, and that felt like an understatement. The wing-back might even have won it in stoppage time at the end only for Petr Cech to turn a skimmed shot round his near-post as anxiety gripped the locals.
Chelsea have greater depth in their attacking quality but, even with Juan Mata, Oscar and Eden Hazard in typically flamboyant mood, they had critically been incapable of eking out the breathing space required. They, too, had registered from a corner in front of the Shed end, Mata's delivery met emphatically by Terry whose thumped finish might have opened the floodgates. Liverpool were dithering at the time, their own possession rather aimless and carelessness creeping into the defending. Daniel Agger had been assigned Terry at the set-play but started on the wrong side and ended up blocked by a jumble of Glen Johnson and Ivanovic. By the time Terry was charging off to the corner flag in celebration, the Dane's sense of guilt had left him flushed.
Chelsea's centre-halves have actually contributed as many Premier League goals this term – six – as their extravagant attacking trio of Hazard, Mata and Oscar, and those three could not ally slick approach-play with accurate finishing, the inter-changes becoming more elaborate and prone to run aground with each passing miss. Hazard darted through the middle, leaving Joe Allen floored not for the first time, but Brad Jones saved smartly from Fernando Torres's first-time shot. When three Liverpool defenders collided at the end of the first period, Mata skipped into space on the edge of the box only to sky his attempt. Jones denied Torres from close range again just before the hour-mark, and the visitors must have sensed that they might escape without further damage.
They imposed themselves more impressively thereafter, grinding a route back into the contest with the hosts having lost Terry en route.
Di Matteo's side had shipped 10 goals in the four matches the 31-year-old had sat out for his ban, and may now have to learn to live without him again as they await the results of Monday's MRI scan. Ashley Cole's hamstring may have recovered by the time they visit The Hawthorns, and David Luiz should no longer be troubled by the tonsillitis that ruled him out here.
Yet Terry's absence still serves to unsettle, and this team feels in desperate need of some old-fashioned defensive solidity. First has become third in the space of a fortnight. This trend has been endured before.
Man of the match Brad Jones (Liverpool)


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Telegraph:

Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1

Luis Suarez dealt a huge double blow to Chelsea's Premier League title hopes today after inadvertently ending John Terry's comeback and snatching a deserved draw for Liverpool at Stamford Bridge.
Terry looked set to enjoy a dream return to action after his domestic four-match racism ban when he powered the European champions ahead from a corner at Stamford Bridge.
But the Blues captain then collided accidentally with the man at the centre of football's other race scandal, forcing him off on a stretcher, with Suarez going on to equalise for Liverpool and almost steal victory.
The draw prevented Chelsea from climbing back into second place as they recorded their third league game without a win to lie three points behind Manchester United.
The home support may have turned up expecting another Stamford Bridge goal-fest, having witnessed 30 in the previous five games here.
But having shipped 14 goals in their last seven matches, Chelsea appeared to adopt a more conservative approach against a Liverpool side who recalled virtually all their available big guns but persevered with their experiment of playing three at the back.
They certainly had plenty of the ball early on, but the Blues' counter-attacking approach almost paid off in the sixth minute when Joe Allen lost possession to Oscar, who was threaded in by Eden Hazard only to lift the ball over the crossbar.
Liverpool, who had won on their previous three visits to Stamford Bridge, continued to probe but their defence went AWOL from Chelsea's first corner in the 20th minute.
Terry was allowed to dart untracked to the near post and duly powered home Juan Mata's delivery.
Another lightning Chelsea break from the lively Hazard saw Fernando Torres' shot parried by Brad Jones straight to the Belgian, who could not control his volley.
Nuri Sahin dragged wide at the other end before a nightmare moment for Terry and Chelsea 10 minutes before half-time.
Terry gifted the ball to Steven Gerrard and got back to make a tackle on Suarez, who fell on his right leg, leaving him in agony.
After several minutes of treatment on his knee, Terry was forced to concede his comeback was over and was carried off on a stretcher with his head in his hands, manager Roberto Di Matteo offering a consoling word before he disappeared down the tunnel.
Gary Cahill replaced Terry with the atmosphere inevitably flattening until the fourth minute of stoppage-time when Mata's superb run was marred by a rushed finish that was so out of character.
Liverpool had clearly been told to up the aggression at the break but they repeatedly took it too far.
Allen was rightly booked for bundling over Torres and the fit-again Glen Johnson followed for obstructing Oscar, whose free-kick saw Jones produce a brilliant reflex save from Torres' header.
In the chaos that followed, Gerrard hurt his left knee trying to prevent Torres reaching the rebound and Mikel produced an airshot from barely eight yards.
Liverpool hauled off Sahin for Suso as they abandoned their back three and briefly had Chelsea under pressure before Torres went close to prodding in Ryan Bertrand's cross.
Mikel - who must surely end his five-year goal drought so attacking has he become - nearly got on the end of a Mata free-kick after Gerrard was cautioned for tripping Oscar.
But Liverpool's substitution paid off 17 minutes from time when Suso's corner was flicked on by Jamie Carragher and Suarez nodded home from point-blank range.
Chelsea came straight back at them but the visitors were defending manfully and Di Matteo wasted little time throwing on Wednesday's matchwinner, Victor Moses, for Oscar.
Liverpool looked just as capable of snatching victory and Mikel was booked for the latest in a series of clumsy tackles before Torres was replaced by Daniel Sturridge.
Suso shanked wide when well-placed, Suarez tried his luck from the halfway line and Ivanovic powered over a header.
Suarez would have won it for Liverpool after racing clear onto Enrique's ball but for a vital challenge from Cech.
And after Hazard blasted narrowly wide, Cech came to Chelsea's rescue again in stoppage-time by keeping out Enrique's powerful near-post shot.


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Mail:

Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1: Suarez rescues point for Reds after goalscorer Terry is crocked on return

By MARTIN SAMUEL

For Roman Abramovich, the painful irony is that, on the day he handed Liverpool £50million for Fernando Torres, this was the sort of afternoon he was hoping to avoid.
The one in which Chelsea dominate, yet fail to close the deal. The one in which chance after chance slips away. The one in which the old warrior, John Terry, is forced to do the job the forwards cannot.
It is incredible to think that, take away Terry’s unmarked header after 20 minutes and Chelsea could even have lost this one. Having dominated the first half, they allowed Liverpool back into the game and by the end were clinging on for a point.
Four minutes into injury time, Luis Enrique — Liverpool’s most consistent performer and a real aggravation for Chelsea after half-time — hit a low shot which produced a vital save from Petr Cech.
There would have been no way back for Roberto Di Matteo’s team had that gone in, their own nightmare Shakhtar Donetsk moment. It may have been a travesty considering Chelsea’s supremacy, but the Ukrainian side probably felt the same about their injury-time defeat here last Wednesday.
That Chelsea are not two points nearer to leaders Manchester United is not solely Torres’s fault but a cheque for £50m usually brings some guarantee of match-winning goals. Not to mention a cheque for £23.5m (Juan Mata), £32m (Eden Hazard), £20m (Oscar) plus sundries of £9m (Victor Moses) and £3.5m and rising (Daniel Sturridge). It certainly lends fresh currency to the cliche about not being able to buy a goal.
It will not be lost on Chelsea’s owner that, for all his expenditure, the most gifted goalscorer on the pitch was in a red shirt: Liverpool’s Luis Suarez, scorer of the 73rd-minute equaliser and a threat throughout the second half once Terry had gone off injured.
The obvious gap between the possibilities for Suarez as an individual and the limitations of the present Liverpool team have led some to speculate about a parting of the ways, but Chelsea are the one suitor manager Brendan Rodgers should not fear. The combination of Terry and Suarez at the same club is potentially so toxic after recent events that a complaint from the Society of Black Lawyers may be in the post even at the thought of it.
John Terry's return to the Chelsea starting line-up was cut short by a nasty-looking injury in the first half against Liverpool, just 15 minutes after he bagged a goal.
Terry, back in the side for the first time having served a four-match race ban, was carried off on a stretcher while holding his face and screaming in agony after Liverpool striker Luis Suarez slipped and landed awkwardly on the 31-year-old's knee.
After the game Roberto Di Matteo revealed that Terry would have an MRI scan on Monday morning.
The pair came together to significant effect on Sunday in an incident that probably changed the game. Ramires clattered into the back of Suarez, sending him tumbling headlong into Terry, who was removed on a stretcher, clearly in much pain with suspected knee ligament damage.
Until then, Liverpool had been innocuous, despite a reasonable share of possession.
Chelsea shorn of Terry, however, are a different proposition and Liverpool sensed it. They came out with greater ambition after half-time, chased the game and, to the surprise of the locals, reeled it in.
Rodgers abandoned his five at the back — he said it was three but, if a manager selects three central defenders and two full backs in the wide roles, their cautious outlook tends to five — and Chelsea ran out of ideas. You don’t get much for £138m these days.
So who could have won this for Chelsea? Oscar (six minutes), Branislav Ivanovic (19), Torres and Hazard (27), Mata (45), Mata again (45+4), Mata third time unlucky (53), Torres (57), Torres (64), Mata and John Mikel Obi (67), Ivanovic (87) and Hazard (90).
The pick of it would be the Torres header from Oscar’s cross that was well saved by Liverpool goalkeeper Brad Jones, the Torres shot from a powerful run by Hazard, again kept out by Jones, and Ivanovic’s late header from a Mata corner.
Torres was an inch away from a significant near-post connection and Jones made a hash of a Mata free-kick that Mikel could not convert just before Liverpool scored, but Suarez’s intervention seemed to knock the confidence from the home side. The expected siege of the Liverpool goal did not materialise.
James Bond gives more away under interrogation than Di Matteo but the Chelsea manager must privately be a little concerned at such wastefulness, not least as it took an error of boyish naivety to tee up Chelsea’s only goal.
Terry was unmarked when he headed in Mata’s corner. Unmarked. That’s like bowling short down the leg side to Alastair Cook or giving Cristiano Ronaldo a free-kick on the edge of the area. It just spells trouble. It just spells goal. And sure enough it did.
Terry arrived in a huge gap between two red shirts and his header left Jones no chance. On his return to the side following his four-match domestic ban for racially abusing Anton Ferdinand it was also typical of the man. Terry has a way of responding to personal crisis that is a manager’s dream.
Di Matteo would have restored him to the team without the slightest worry he could withstand the pressure. The discomfort will set in if the medical bulletin that followed his clash with Suarez brings bad news.
Chelsea can pull off the odd game without Terry — the Champions League final being a case in point — but not a whole season.
Here was the proof. Would Liverpool have got a draw had Chelsea’s original back four stayed together? There was scant indication of it.
The equaliser, however, showed vulnerability. Jamie Carragher was first to Suso’s corner and Suarez got the better of Ramires to head home his 10th goal in 15 matches this season, three more than Torres, who has played three more games.
Take his goals away, say the number crunchers, and Liverpool would be in the bottom three. Put him in a blue shirt and Chelsea’s season would not be so delicately poised. Then again, the same might be said of Didier Drogba, watching from the stand. Not that the owner admits mistakes.


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Mirror:

Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool: Terry and Suarez grab headlines
by Martin Lipton

It happens seemingly every year, ever since Luis Felipe Scolari.
The clocks go back and Chelsea lose their way, the bright football of the first few months replaced by caution and nervousness.
This time, we were promised by current Blues boss Roberto Di Matteo, it would not happen. The lessons had been learned.
But two points out of nine after Liverpool’s second-half ­resurgence earned a deserved reward – as Luis Suarez showed Fernando Torres what a clinical striker truly is – it was another spell of what Carlo Ancelotti called a “bad moment”.
For Ancelotti, of course, it went on for months. Similar winter wobbles saw Scolari and Andre Villas-Boas sent packing long before light evenings returned.
While Di Matteo does not face the same fate yet, the Italian may be wondering if the gods are conspiring against him, too.
The gods who ordain that John Terry, in his first game back after his ban for what he said to Anton Ferdinand, should be carried off in agony, soon after nodding the Blues in front. An injury that could have huge ­repercussions.
And the same gods who are playing a sick joke on Torres, turning him from an object of fear throughout the land to one of pity.
Statistics can be used to ­demonstrate anything you like, but sometimes they graphically represent the harsh reality.
In 84 appearances since he joined Chelsea for £50million, Torres has scored 18 goals, and none in five against his old club.Suarez, who effectively replaced him for less than half the money, has now got 32 in 68 games.
To be fair to Torres, he was up for it last night, picking up the ball and driving at the heart of a three-man defence including two Reds extremes, Jamie Carragher and rookie Andre Wisdom. Trying hard, though, is not enough.
Twice, once after a terrific run by Eden Hazard, and then when Oscar’s free-kick saw him flick goalwards, he was denied by the excellent Brad Jones.
With dominant Chelsea looking to extend their 20th-minute lead – given them when Daniel Agger and Glen Johnson made a complete Horlicks of the marking from Juan Mata’s corner – another chance arrived, one that the Liverpool incarnation of the Spaniard would have gobbled up.
Mata’s brilliant volley sent Ryan Bertrand away down the left, the low ball in begged for a finish, but Torres could not nudge home.
Suarez, in contrast, has returned this season a different player.
Last term, he was almost as profligate. This time round, rising to the challenge of being Brendan Rodgers’ only real striker, his 10th goal this season really mattered.
The Uruguayan had fed off mere scraps for the first 70 minutes, as Chelsea took control.
But once Terry made way, screaming out as Ramires’ push on Suarez sent the blameless ­Liverpool man plunging into his knee, he sensed his chance would come.
It did with 17 minutes to go, as the Reds reverted to a back four and sub Suso’s corner was flicked on by Carragher, with Suarez’s clever nudge on Ramires creating the space for him to nod home.
Suddenly, Chelsea were hanging on. Suso scuffed wide and keeper Petr Cech denied Jose Enrique down to his right in added time.
Kudos for Rodgers, questions for Di Matteo – and ones he must answer swiftly, before the shadow of the past stalks his team.
What he would give for the old Torres, or the current Suarez.
With either, surely, it would have been different. Spectres are swirling round the Bridge.


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Sun:

Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1
Shaun Custis

LOVE him or hate him, you cannot ignore Luis Suarez.
The Uruguayan accidentally landed on Chelsea scorer John Terry’s right knee which led to the skipper being carried off.
Then the Liverpool striker headed the equaliser which was his sixth Premier League goal in as many games.
And he could have won it when one-on-one with Petr Cech, but the keeper gambled and got a vital touch which prevented Chelsea conceding again.
Where on earth would Liverpool be without Suarez? If he ever gets injured they will be in a right old mess.
The previous week against Newcastle he also pulled his team out of the mire with an exquisite finish to rescue a point.
Chelsea fans must have wondered how it could have been if, instead of Fernando Torres, Suarez was the man who had moved from Anfield to Stamford Bridge.
The Spaniard had another mediocre day against his former club and looked thoroughly grumpy when he was subbed eight minutes from time to jeers from Reds fans and indifference from Blues supporters.
Suarez and Terry are two of the game’s more controversial characters, both having been done by the FA for racist remarks.
Terry was just returning to the Blues side after his four-game ban for racially abusing QPR defender Anton Ferdinand.
And it was typical Terry that he should be the man who put Chelsea ahead on 20 minutes, although Liverpool got nought out of 10 for their marking in their own penalty area.
Juan Mata aimed the corner towards the near post and Terry had complete freedom to run to meet it and power his header beyond Brad Jones.
It was Terry’s 50th goal for the club and the story was set-up.
Captain, leader, legend returns to put his troubles behind him and power Chelsea to victory.
But the script went awry just before half-time once Terry came out to challenge Suarez and, as the pair fell over, it was immediately clear the centre-back had a serious problem.
Terry is not a man to stay down unless he really has to and Suarez stood over him showing concern.
After lengthy treatment the Chelsea skipper was helped on to a stretcher and taken down the tunnel to be replaced by Gary Cahill. “One England captain” sang the home fans. They will always back him — no matter what.
At that stage Chelsea were in control, and had Mata shown more composure, Roberto Di Matteo’s men may well have gone on to win the game.
Instead, having gone effortlessly past 34-year-old Jamie Carragher, Mata blazed a left-foot shot over the bar.
Carragher does not start many games these days and he would not have been happy at the way Mata beat him.
But in fairness Carragher held it together and performed really well after the break.
Liverpool were struggling and lightweight Welsh midfielder Joe Allen gave the ball away too easily every time he tried to play it forward.
Allen is perfectly content when he is playing it sideways and backwards, keeping up his passing statistics. But it all goes haywire if he tries to be creative.
He has yet to justify his hefty £14million signing from Swansea and when he hauled down Torres after another mistake it was the act of a frustrated man.
Chelsea continued to attack but again Mata shot wide from 20 yards and then a Torres header was well saved by Jones.
John Obi Mikel’s swish at fresh air was another opportunity gone and a Mata free-kick was pushed out by Jones, hit Mikel and bobbled around a post.
Liverpool had not offered much of a threat until they levelled out of nothing on 73 minutes.
Substitute Suso’s corner was cleverly flicked on by Carragher and Suarez was there at the back post to head in from close range.
Victor Moses, Chelsea’s hero of the midweek Champions League victory over Shakhtar Donetsk, came on for Oscar.
And soon after that, the board went up to signify that Daniel Sturridge was replacing Torres.
If the cheesed-off Torres does not want to be subbed, he has to give the manager a reason for leaving him on. But he rarely does so.
Liverpool actually had their best period of the match in the closing minutes.
Suso scuffed a right-foot shot wide after good work by Raheem Sterling.
And Suarez, trying to do everything on his own, attempted an outrageous effort from the half-way line when he saw Cech out of his goal. Though it was on target, the keeper was untroubled.
But then Suarez was put clear by Jose Enrique and the flag stayed down.
Cech had a split-second to decide what to do and he gambled on coming out.
Suarez switched to his left and seemed to have got round Cech but the keeper stuck out his right leg and the ball cannoned back off Suarez and out of play.
Right at the death Sterling fed Suarez who shuttled it out to Enrique and the fullback’s drive was arrowing towards the bottom corner.
Manager Brendan Rodgers jumped out of his seat. Was this the moment his struggling Liverpool team were about to turn the corner?
But Cech reacted well and saved by a post.
Blues have only taken two points out of their last nine and are crying out for some Didier Drogba-like finishing.
Drogba, back from China where he now plays, was at the Bridge and met up with his team-mates after the game.
How they must have wished he could have pulled on a Chelsea shirt yesterday.

DREAM TEAM
CHELSEA 1 LIVERPOOL 1
STAR MAN — SUAREZ (LIVERPOOL)
CHELSEA: Cech 7, Azpilicueta 6, Terry 8 (Cahill 7), Ivanovic 7, Bertrand 6, Mikel 6, Ramires 6, Hazard 6, Oscar 7 (Moses 5), Mata 8, Torres 5 (Sturridge 5). Subs not used: Turnbull, Romeu, Ferreira, Marin. Booked: Mikel.
LIVERPOOL: Jones 7, Wisdom 7, Carragher 7, Agger 5, Johnson 8, Allen 5, Gerrard 7, Sterling 7, Sahin 6 (Suso 7), Jose Enrique 7, Suarez 8. Subs not used: Gulacsi, Cole, Assaidi, Henderson, Coates, Downing. Booked: Allen, Johnson, Gerrard.
REF: H Webb 6


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Express:

CHELSEA 1 - LIVERPOOL 1: ROBBIE DI MATTEO, BEWARE WINTER BLUES

Tony Banks

This frustrating stalemate made it three games without a win in the league for Roberto Di Matteo’s men. It is hardly a crisis as yet, with only three points separatingChelsea from league leaders Manchester United and only one defeat from their first 11 games – but it is a trend the Italian will want to put a stop to pretty quickly.
Three of the Italian’s predecessors – Luiz Felipe Scolari, Carlo Ancelotti and Andre Villas-Boas – all eventually fell victim to the winter blues.
A couple of setbacks led to a slump the team could not get out of – and in two of the above scenarios, the man in charge did not last the season as Roman Abramovich’s patience ran out. It is odd as well how often Liverpool crop up to throw a spanner in the Chelsea works at this time of year. No matter in what state the Anfield club are, they always seem to raise their game against the Londoners.

They actually went into this game having won their last four in the league against Chelsea. The Blues dominated the first half of this tight contest and should have punished Liverpool by more than John Terry’s thumping header.
But they were caught by who other than Luis Suarez, who escaped his marker to head home the equaliser.
Liverpool could even have won the game had Petr Cech not made a fine late save from Jose Enrique.
In 2008-09, Chelsea won just five of 15 games under Scolari as November dawned. They never recovered and he was out of a job by February.
Ancelotti, having just won the Double, saw his team win three out of 13 in the same period. He lasted to the end of the season before the axe fell.

Villas-Boas last year won just five out of 16. His team never recovered and he was gone by March.
It is as if, when the squirrels go into hibernation, so do some of Chelsea’s players.
We are not quite there yet with this remodelled, rebuilt and so far very exciting young Chelsea. But it is now two points taken in the league out of a possible nine and United have opened up a gap at the top. Of course, Di Matteo could point to the fact that his team have interspersed this wobbly run in the league by steadying the ship in the Champions League and knocking United out of the Capital One Cup. It is not all doom and gloom.
Chelsea now face West Brom, Manchester City, Fulham and West Ham – a tricky set of fixtures.
They need to find their mojo fast – and will have to do it without skipper Terry, who will find out today how bad the knee ligament injury is that forced him out of the game in the 38th minute. He has a scan today, but it is likely to be a minimum of three months.
Of course, in his first game back after his ban, it had to be Terry who gave Chelsea the lead. He rose, criminally unmarked, to head home as Di Matteo’s team ran the game. Terry did not last much longer before his collision with Suarez led to him being carried off on a stretcher.
But after Mata, Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres all missed chances, Anfield manager Brendan Rodgers organised the fightback. He reorganised his team, switching to a 4-2-3-1 formation – and suddenly Liverpool were alive.
In the 73rd minute Suso’s corner was flicked on by the ageless Jamie Carragher – and there was Suarez to head powerfully into the net.
How Chelsea, for all their frills and flair, could do with a Suarez at the sharp end. He has 32 goals in 68 games. Torres, the £50 million man who signed from Liverpool and was substituted yet again, has 18 in 84.
The nights are drawing in, Robbie. You need to get the heaters under your team.

Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Cech 7; Azpilicueta 6, Ivanovic 7, Terry 6 (Cahill 38, 6), Bertrand 6; Ramires 7, Mikel 6; Mata 7, Oscar 6, Hazard 6; Torres 6 (Sturridge 82, 6). Booked: Allen, Johnson, Gerrard. Goal: Terry 20.
Liverpool (3-5-2): Jones 7; Wisdom 7, Carragher 8, Agger 7; Johnson 7, Sahin 6 (Suso 60, 6), Gerrard 7, Allen 6, Enrique 6; Suarez 7, Sterling 6. Booked: Mikel. Goal: Suarez 73.
Referee: H Webb (South Yorkshire).


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Star:

CHELSEA 1 - LIVERPOOL 1: SUPER LUIS SUAREZ STRIKE ADDS TO JOHN TERRY AGONY
David woods

IF CHELSEA had Luis Suarez, they could be well clear at the top of the Premier League.
The Uruguayan claimed his 11th goal of the season to snatch what had looked a most unlikely point for Liverpool, given their first-half performance.
It was also the fourth game in succession in which the controversial striker has scored, but, unfortunately for his manager Brendan Rodgers, they couldn’t capitalise on it.
Before the game Rodgers, who spent four years at Stamford Bridge as youth-team coach and then reserveteam manager, revealed he would not swap the 25-year-old for anyone.
Certainly not £50m Fernando Torres, who came off in the 82nd minute after a decent display for Chelsea, but yet another one in which he failed to register.
Like the rest of the Liverpool side, Suarez was not much cop before the break. They improved dramatically after the restart, Roberto Di Matteo’s Blues dipped a bit and it was Rodgers’ men who looked the more likely to snatch a late winner.
For Chelsea, this was a day of hugely mixed fortunes for their skipper John Terry.
He scored the west Londoners’ goal in the 20th minute, but then suffered a seriouslooking leg injury 15 minutes later.
The man who accidentally caused it was Suarez who, like Terry, was caught up in a racism storm last season and banned for eight matches for abusing Manchester United’s Patrice Evra.
Liverpool’s formation was, at times, almost incomprehensible and they looked bemused.
Torres, in contrast, looked lively with a couple of early bursts through the heart of the Liverpool defence, displaying an acceleration which surprised some onlookers. A third run, this time down the right, led to a corner – and the Blues goal.
Taken by Juan Mata, Terry was allowed the freedom of the box to bury a header.
Branislav Ivanovic, just by standing his ground, stopped Daniel Agger and Glen Johnson picking him up and Steven Gerrard failed to respond.
Terry – returning to domestic action for the first time since his four-game ban for abusing Anton Ferdinand – celebrated his first goal for six months by blowing kisses to the crowd.
Torres almost doubled the lead in the 27th minute, forcing Brad Jones into an awkward save with a curler after being played in by Eden Hazard.
The Belgium star had a chance to convert the rebound, but miscued his acrobatic half-volley.
Then Terry’s right leg buckled as Suarez fell on to him and it took a good four minutes to take the ex-England skipper off on a stretcher, with Gary Cahill replacing him.
In first-half stoppage-time, Mata nutmegged Andre Wisdom to set himself up for a perfect look at goal. Inexplicably, the Spaniard blasted over with his left – a miss which was to prove costly.
Then in the 57th minute Jones flicked out a left hand to stop a Torres header.
A frustrated Gerrard went into the book for kicking out at Oscar in the 67th minute. But he was cheered in the 73rd minute when Suarez equalised. Substitute Suso delivered an inswinging corner, Jamie Carragher nodded on and Suarez buried a close-range header.
Replays showed the Uruguayan gave his marker an almighty shove but it was not spotted by referee Howard Webb.
Ex-Anfield idol Torres’ game ended as he was replaced by Daniel Sturridge, enduring jeers from the travelling support as he trudged off.
Suarez tried to chip Cech from the halfway line and then set up Jose Enrique to force Chelsea’s stand-in skipper to block at his near post in stoppage-time.
It was a bright conclusion for Liverpool, who will have emerged far more cheered than Chelsea.
They have now slipped to third and surely another South American will be on owner Roman Abramovich’s mind.
Suarez may be out of reach but prolific Colombian Falcao, of Atletico Madrid, must be on the cards.