Independent:
Liverpool 0 Chelsea 2
Liverpool slip up in Premier League title race to Jose Mourinho's cunning gameplan
Defeat means Manchester City could now win the league on goal difference
Sam Wallace
Cartoon villain is the role that Jose Mourinho specialises in best and this afternoon he was the man who cancelled Christmas at Anfield, the crusher of Liverpudlian dreams and a whole lot more besides. He has a cunning plan for every occasion and the only criteria he brings to bear is whether it will help him win the game.
Quite simply, on this occasion Liverpool found themselves Mourinho-ed. His gameplan was launched in the aftermath of the draw with Atletico Madrid on Tuesday when Mourinho began his narrative of fielding a weakened team and it culminated in this classic counter-attacking victory, which broke Liverpool hearts for its opportunism and its sheer bloody-mindedness.
Brendan Rodgers gave his verdict on the performance, as “like having two buses parked” in front of the Chelsea goal, a variation on the phrase that Mourinho introduced to English football in his first spell at Chelsea. The Liverpool manager said that he would never pick a team to play in that way with the clear inference that he considered it beneath him, although the thought did occur that it tends to be the pragmatists rather than the purists who have the better medal collections.
Whether you like it or not, there is something magnificent in these Chelsea performances, even if it can be an acquired taste, but it comes down to the basics: determination, organisation and an utter devotion to avoiding mistakes. One would not wish to watch it every week for the rest of one’s life but to see the millionaires under Mourinho’s command working like crazy to carry out his demands to the letter is to get a taste of the power of this coach.
Ah, mistakes - a cruel way to decide such a big match, as even Mourinho himself later conceded. In injury-time at the end of the first half, Steven Gerrard allowed the ball to roll under his foot and then slipped as he tried to retrieve it, permitting Demba Ba to run on goal where his finish was a lot more calculated than much of his play over the afternoon.
For Gerrard it was more painful than the moment his ill-advised back-pass found Didier Drogba for a goal at Anfield four years ago because then it was only Manchester United whom Chelsea were competing with for the league title. That his mistake was such an integral part of a defeat that could potentially deny him the only league championship of his life is entirely in keeping with the comic book stories of triumph and despair that have characterised his career.
The league is not Liverpool’s to lose any more, not with Manchester City’s victory at Crystal Palace which put them in charge. Should City and Liverpool win their remaining games then they will both finish the season on 86 points and, barring a dramatic avalanche of goals for Rodgers’ team, it will be City who claim the title on goal difference for a second time in three seasons.
To be so close after 24 years, having taken full advantage thus far of this unpredictable season, is taking its toll on Anfield. Before the game they lined the streets to cheer in the team bus and by the time that Fernando Torres and Willian broke away to score the second in injury-time at the end of the match there was a wild, impotent rage directed at the little unshaven Portuguese man in his gilet and tracksuit beating his chest in front of the away fans.
This was once a stadium where Mourinho found himself denied and frustrated on occasions in the Rafa Benitez years, but now it feels like he is becoming a curse around the place. As the Chelsea manager reminded everyone afterwards, it is his team who have won home and away against Liverpool and City this season. With their remaining games against Norwich City and Cardiff, Chelsea might yet win the league if the other two contrive to slip.
It was a spiky occasion, testament to the dislike between the two sets of supporters that has grown over recent years. At their hotel in Formby on Saturday night, Chelsea officials reported fireworks being set off outside well after midnight and a receptionist kept busy intercepting calls to the players’ room. Once inside the stadium, Luis Garcia, scorer of the contentious goal against Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final second leg in 2005 was conspicuously introduced as a pre-match guest on the pitch and embraced by Gerrard.
In the opening moments, Chelsea were the brighter side but on eight minutes, Mourinho held onto the ball as Gerrard tried to retrieve it for a throw-in and already the tone was set. The Chelsea players wasted time at every opportunity with Luis Suarez at one point sarcastically applauding Mark Schwarzer as he lingered over his kick.
Unfortunately for Liverpool, their chances were so few. Raheem Sterling was excellent in the first half but he failed to have a meaningful shot on goal. Ashley Cole’s goal-line clearance on 14 minutes was from a Liverpool corner that struck John Obi Mikel and the loose ball fell to Mamadou Sakho who missed. Among Chelsea’s back four, the debutant Tomas Kalas was impressive with Branislav Ivanovic, Ashley Cole and Cesar Azpilicueta now old-hands at this kind of game.
In the space of five days, Cole has come back from the wilderness to play his part in two defensive masterclasses. It has looked like he has never been away. In the second half, Schwarzer saved from Joe Allen and then, at the end of the game touched a shot from Suarez over the bar. The Australian was solid, with Gerrard shooting from range, but he was hardly over-worked.
For the second goal, when Torres advanced there was simply no-one but Simon Mignolet between him and the Liverpool goal, although the Chelsea striker played it safe with a ball square to Willian to finish the move. The absence of a managerial handshake at the end and Rodgers’ withering assessment of Chelsea’s approach – delivered with a smile, it should be said – could put pay to the public, and possibly the private, friendship between the two men.
That makes life a little easier for Rodgers. At Anfield they like their managers to share their own hate-figures, as with Benitez and Sir Alex Ferguson, and at the moment there is no-one the Liverpool support were rather see de-perched than Mourinho. This result told them that accomplishing the mission will be a lot harder than they thought.
Liverpool (4-3-3): Mignolet; Johnson, Skrtel, Sakho, Flanagan (Aspas, 81); Lucas (Sturridge, 58), Gerrard, Allen; Sterling, Suarez, Coutinho.
Substitutes not used: Jones (gk), Toure, Agger, Alberto, Cissokho.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Schwarzer; Azpilicueta, Ivanovic, Kalas, Cole; Mikel, Matic; Salah (Willian, 60), Lampard, Schurrle (Cahill, 77); Ba (Torres, 84).
Substitutes not used: Hilario (gk), Van Ginkel, Ake, Baker.
Referee: M Atkinson
Man of the match: Ivanovic
Booked: Chelsea Salah, Lampard, Cole, Torres
Rating: 7
=================
Guardian:
Liverpool 0 Chelsea 2
Chelsea blow title race open after mistake by Liverpool's Steven Gerrard
Daniel Taylor at Anfield
When it was all finished, with Steven Gerrard ruminating on a mistake that threatens to stick to his conscience like superglue, Brendan Rodgers could not disguise his disdain. "There were probably two buses parked today instead of one," he said. Chelsea, he said, had been time-wasting from the first minute, defending with 10 players on the 18-yard line. Liverpool's manager smiled and stabbed. It was not difficult to coach a team to be that negative, he added.
No doubt there will be plenty who share his dislike of the way Chelsea set about to smother this game. Their tactics were cynical, calculated and often maddening. They were also, ultimately, spot on and that really was the bottom line after Liverpool's inability to get past those two buses had blown a gaping hole in their title chances.
The handbrake was on, the keys had been chucked into the nearest drain and, for the first time in a long time, Anfield watched in something close to silence.
Mourinho will not care if the opposition manager wallows in a vat of sour grapes. Call it anti-football, or whatever you like, but this match will not go into the record books with an asterisk to remind everyone that Chelsea did it the ugly way. It may, however, be remembered as the defining moment of Liverpool's season and a personal ordeal for Gerrard bearing in mind the potential consequences.
Of all the people, in all the places, nobody could have imagined it would be Gerrard, in front of the Kop, making the mistake that changed everything. Rodgers immediately sought to absolve Gerrard, reminding his players at half-time this was someone who had "picked up this club so many times", and it would need a flint heart not to try to imagine the scale of the player's trauma. Yet this is a hard business and teams that want to win the league cannot be as generous as Gerrard was when Mamadou Sakho's pass rolled under the foot of Liverpool's captain and Demba Ba was suddenly running clear to score.
Glen Johnson could be seen in the second half trying to cajole his team-mate but Gerrard played the rest of the match as if he was struggling to shake it out of his system. He knew the ramifications and Liverpool's efforts to retrieve the damage carried none of the elegance and vigour that have been the hallmark of their season. Gerrard, if anything, was too desperate to make amends, rushing his work and trying long-range shots when a simple pass would have been more effective.
Chelsea defended with structure, brilliance and the kind of togetherness that seems to come almost naturally to Mourinho's teams on the big occasions. He talked about it afterwards as the immaculate defensive performance – "no mistakes, the best team won" – and it culminated with Liverpool putting so much into trying to find an equaliser that they left themselves vulnerable to that moment, right at the end, when Fernando Torres and Willian broke on the counterattack. The two substitutes had nothing between them and Simon Mignolet but open air. Torres set up Willian and Mourinho was on one of his victory runs, beating his chest, letting out all the pent-up emotion.
Rodgers had his say afterwards but, lest it be forgotten, this was a Chelsea side put together with the second leg of their Champions League semi-final against Atlético Madrid in mind. Mark Schwarzer, Branislav Ivanovic and César Azpilicueta will start on Wednesday and Ashley Cole has a fair-to-middling chance. That apart, Mourinho had brought in his support cast, including a 20-year-old centre-half by the name of Tomas Kalas for his Premier League debut.
Kalas's previous Chelsea career had consisted of two appearances as an 89th-minute substitute in cup competitions and he recently joked that his role at the club was to be a training-ground cone. Yet he demonstrated here why he has already won a cap for the Czech Republic. "Beautiful," Mourinho said afterwards. "Beautiful … this kid, Liverpool, Anfield, just beautiful."
Luis Suárez chose a bad day to have one of his more undistinguished performances but a lot of that was to do with the expertise that Kalas and Ivanovic showed. Azpilicueta and Cole matched them and Schwarzer, at the age of 41, showed there is not a lot that fazes him. "They had 10 behind the ball from the first minute," Rodgers said. He had better get used to it.
Mourinho's team gave everything to make sure they could not be added to the list of visitors to Anfield who had been blitzed. Time-wasters? Undoubtedly. They tied their shoelaces. They had collective, and convenient, cramp. They pretended they could not hear the whistle and when they had a throw-in or free-kick nobody was ever in a rush to take it. It was calculated, and often unsatisfactory, and when the ball came to Mourinho there was a telling scene as Gerrard and Jon Flanagan tried to wrestle it off him. Chelsea's manager spun it behind his back and tossed it out of their reach. That was six minutes in.
What an irony that it was in the added-on time at the end of the first half – and the referee, Martin Atkinson, really should have included more – that Chelsea took the lead. Liverpool had no choice but to take more risks in the second half but they lacked their usual creativity and dynamism. Willian slipped the ball into an empty net and Liverpool, from a position of command, must fear all that brilliant momentum has gone.
Man of the match Tomas Kalas (Chelsea)
=================
Telegraph:
Liverpool 0 Chelsea 2
By Henry Winter, Football Correspondent, at Anfield
Jose Mourinho can change his line-up, change his mood and change his wardrobe but what rarely changes is his remarkable ability to keep setting his team up so adroitly against the heavyweights.
Love him or loathe him, he remains the man for the big occasion, a ruthless prize-fighter in the points game. Cantankerous and calculating, Mourinho is still the special tactical one, totally changing the Premier League picture here.
Manchester City are now favourites for the title, after a 2-0 win at Crystal Palace which still leaves them third but with a game in hand and a point behind Chelsea and three behind leaders Liverpool. City also boast a superior goal difference. Liverpool could be third when they play next.
Mourinho played down Chelsea’s chances but nobody was listening. This is a real three-way title chase, the first genuine such race for years, and Chelsea have every chance of winning it.
Mourinho dressed down for the big occasion here, resembling one of Del Boy’s sporting-fashion suppliers, but his teams are cloaked in intelligence, knowing the game-plan, rigidly drilled defensively and skilled at the potent counter. It is far from beautiful but it is effective.
In the Premier League this season, Mourinho’s Chelsea have done the double over City and Liverpool and taken four-point hauls off Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham.
They adopt a rope-a-dope approach, defending in numbers, absorbing the blows before springing out, either seizing on mistakes as Demba Ba did when Steven Gerrard slipped or when Fernando Torres ran 50 yards before squaring for Willian to make it 2-0, sending Mourinho wild in celebration. He clutched the Chelsea crest on his casual club gilet, holding it out towards a group of Liverpool fans, who responded splenetically.
He did not care. He loved this opportunity to introduce the memory of Devon Loch into the thoughts of those who live near the Grand National. Mourinho always seems on a revenge mission when he visits Anfield, never having forgotten the way Liverpool defeated Chelsea with Luis Garcia’s “ghost goal” to reach the 2005 Champions League final. The sight of Garcia being presented to the Kop before kick-off will have simply added to Mourinho’s resolve.
In the marathon that is the Premier League, Liverpool have hit the wall, a blue wall constructed by Mourinho. Branislav Ivanovic was magnificent at centre-half, dominant in the air and on the ground, ably assisted by Tomas Kalas.
Having represented Chelsea for a minute apiece in the Capital One Cup and Champions League, the 20-year-old Czech international did not betray any nerves on his Premier League debut, helping silence the disappointing Luis Suárez.
Chelsea’s full-backs, Cesar Azpilicueta and Ashley Cole, were models of mobile defiance, dealing well in turn with Raheem Sterling and Liverpool’s full-backs. Nemanja Matic and John Obi Mikel patrolled diligently in front of the back-four, breaking up Liverpool moves. Frank Lampard was a captain of industry and responsibility, enjoying keeping Gerrard at bay.
André Schürrle was tireless running up and down on the left until cramp slowed his movement. Ba was occasionally ungainly but always relishing his physical battle with Mamadou Sakho and Martin Skrtel.
Individually, Chelsea were excellent in a momentous victory but this was a triumph rooted in collective work under Mourinho at Cobham. In resting the likes of Gary Cahill before the Champions League semi-final second leg against Atlético Madrid on Wednesday, Mourinho simply prepared his starting ones so well. He prepared them to spoil the party.
Liverpool fans had been full of hope as the morning melted into milky afternoon sunshine. They lined the streets around Anfield, waiting for the team bus to appear and occasionally bursting into “we’re going to win the league”.
Ninety minutes before kick-off, the bus inched through the Shankly Gates as fans held their camera-phones to record a moment they hoped would become historic, an entry in the scrapbooks as they seek a first title since 1990.
Brendan Rodgers stepped from the bus, followed by players with emotionless faces. As Gerrard marched through the players’ entrance the captain of that 1990 side, Alan Hansen, strolled through the main entrance. The Liverpool family was gathering as usual. Ian Rush, John Aldridge and Kenny Dalglish also walked in. Luis Garcia was special guest. The Kop launched into You’ll Never Walk Alone. It all seemed set for another Liverpool win, a 12th on the spin, another case of Gerrard’s “we go again”.
Not here. Not with Mourinho in town. Chelsea’s players were ready and waiting, their ambush primed, their game-plan inelegant but effective: to draw the sting from the usual early Liverpool storm. They actually pressed hard, refusing to allow Gerrard and company to settle. They wasted time. Ivanovic probably set an all-comers’ record for early running down the clock after 1min 25sec.
Mourinho’s own early attempts at time-wasting were ended by Jon Flanagan and Gerrard, who grabbed the ball off him. Chelsea were in uncompromising mood. Cole escaped censure for clearing out Suárez, leading with his arm.
Every Chelsea player contributed to the defensive work through fair means and foul. Ba covered back to block a left-footed Suárez shot. Lampard brought down Sterling. Ivanovic made two vital clearances.
Chelsea were also increasingly threatening going forward. Cole raced down the left, flinging in a cross that Simon Mignolet pushed away. Lampard curled in a corner that Kalas headed wide before kicking the post in frustration as the Kop sighed in relief. Chelsea seized the lead on the cusp of half-time. The wound to Liverpool’s ambition was self-inflicted. Sakho rolled the ball square to Gerrard, who was central as usual, preparing to build another attack.
Gerrard took the ball and turned but slipped, gifting possession to the lurking Ba. The striker sped towards the Kop, controlling the ball with his right foot before placing it firmly under Mignolet and in.
As Chelsea celebrated, the Kop immediately sang in support of their rueful captain. Chelsea fans reminded Gerrard that he had previous with such errors against them, notably with an own goal in the 2005 Carling Cup final and in the Premier League in 2010 when his back-pass was intercepted by Didier Drogba who scored, helping Chelsea eventually beat Manchester United to the title.
This was a test of Liverpool’s resolve but they were tired in mind and body. Azpilicueta stopped a Sterling run. Cole thwarted Glen Johnson. Ivanovic ushered Gerrard into a cul-de-sac. On it went. Schwarzer comfortably held a couple of Gerrard shots and saved a Joe Allen volley.
Chelsea were giving everything. Schürrle looked shattered but he kept running, even testing Mignolet with a curling shot, before collapsing with cramp and eventually replaced by Gary Cahill as Chelsea switched to a back-five. Cahill blocked Sterling’s way to goal. Cole nicked the ball off Johnson.
And there was another sting in the tail as Mourinho’s subs combined: Torres sprinted through and calmly squared the ball to Willian, who confirmed that the title race is now a thrilling three-way affair.
=================
Times:
Liverpool 0 Chelsea 2
Chelsea ‘buses’ put the brakes on Liverpool dream machine
Oliver Kay Chief Football Correspondent
So this is what happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object. Whatever the powerful, mysterious force that seemed to have been driving Liverpool to their first league title in 24 years, the magic faded at Anfield yesterday in the face of unyielding opposition from José Mourinho’s Chelsea.
An afternoon that began amid such fervent expectation for Liverpool, whose supporters paraded banners imploring their players to “make us dream”, turned into a nightmare. Indeed, for Steven Gerrard, it was worse than that. The Liverpool captain would be forgiven for wondering how long he will be haunted by the fateful error and slip that paved the way for Demba Ba’s all-important opening goal in first-half stoppage time. Days? Weeks? Months? Years?
It has long felt hazardous to make predictions about this Barclays Premier League title race, but that felt suspiciously like the moment when the bubble burst for Liverpool. Mourinho might prefer to see it as a slow puncture. Chelsea’s approach, with so many players unavailable and others rested in advance of the Champions League semi-final, second leg against Atlético Madrid on Wednesday, seemed designed to deflate as well as frustrate. It was a masterclass in a certain type of football — winning football, Mourinho will say.
Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager, took issue with Chelsea’s tactics; rather than “park the bus,” he said they had “parked two buses”. Rodgers, who served as a youth-team coach under Mourinho at Stamford Bridge, suggested that Chelsea’s approach was “not difficult to do” and “the polar opposite of what we do”, but what is certain is that it is difficult to break down.
Liverpool had won 14 and drawn two out of their previous 16 Barclays Premier League matches, scoring 52 goals in the process, since a 2-1 defeat by Chelsea on December 29. If anyone expected Chelsea to fall into the same trap as Manchester City, Arsenal and just about everyone else, though, leaving themselves open to the Liverpool Blitzkrieg, then they do not know Mourinho.
This Chelsea starting line-up featured seven changes from that in Madrid last Tuesday, but that just goes to demonstrate Mourinho’s unrivalled ability to coax dogged, determined, disciplined performances out of just about any combination of players. That this one was achieved with a line-up that included Tomas Kalas, a 20-year-old defender making his first Premier League start, simply underlined how well that game plan — basic or otherwise — had been drilled into the team over the previous days.
It was never going to be pretty. That was clear from the very first moments as Mark Schwarzer and César Azpilicueta started time-wasting. Martin Atkinson, the referee, failed to address it and frustration crept into a Liverpool team who in recent weeks have often been 2-0 up by the midway point of the first half.
There was a half-chance early on for Philippe Coutinho, who sent a side-footed volley just wide of Schwarzer’s near post, but, for all the attacking intent of Luis Suárez and Raheem Sterling, Liverpool did not come close to replicating the fluency they had shown at Anfield over the previous months. How could they, when Azpilicueta, Branislav Ivanovic, Kalas and the excellent Ashley Cole formed such a compact, narrow back four, with John Obi Mikel, Nemanja Matic and Frank Lampard closing down the space in midfield?
Liverpool missed the energy of Jordan Henderson in midfield and the longer the first half went on, the clearer it became that this game was not to their liking. Chelsea barely looked interested in attack, with André Schürrle and Mohamed Salah looking like auxiliary full backs rather than wingers, but they broke to force a couple of dead-ball situations. From one, an Azpilicueta throw-in, Ba had a header saved. From another, a Lampard corner, Kalas rose, unmarked, in the six-yard box and sent a header wide.
There is an irony in that both Chelsea goals came in stoppage time — Ba at the end of the first half, Willian at the very end — as a result of the very time-wasting that had so irked Liverpool. Not only did it succeed in breaking Liverpool’s rhythm, but it seemed to tell them that playing their own game, the one that had come so naturally over the previous weeks, might not be enough, even though a draw yesterday would have kept their destiny in their hands.
That, though, cannot explain the Gerrard mistake. It was the type of routine pass he has received tens of thousands times over the course of his career, just short of the halfway line in a central position, but somehow the ball eluded his control and, as it did, he slipped. Gerrard gave chase, but it was too late. Ba was away.
The forward calmly shot past Simon Mignolet and, not for the first time in a match against Chelsea, Gerrard looked crestfallen.
Rodgers said afterwards that he had told his players that “this [Gerrard] is a boy who has picked up this club so many times” and “we were hoping that one could step up to the plate instead of him”.
For once this season, none did. Suárez and Sterling persisted but were largely ineffective. Coutinho’s final ball was sorely lacking. Daniel Sturridge, a substitute, did not look fit enough to make an impact against a defence in which Kalas and Cole, in particular, grew in stature as the game went on.
Anfield has always looked to Gerrard at moments like this. On this occasion, inspiration was not forthcoming. He lined up a succession of shots from the edge of the penalty area, but his usual conviction and power was missing. The earlier mistake seemed to be playing on his mind and that of the whole team.
In desperation, Rodgers sent on Iago Aspas, and when Fernando Torres was summoned from the Chelsea bench, it seemed to be written that the former Liverpool hero might score a second. As it transpired, a mistake in stoppage time did allow Torres to streak clear, but, bearing down on Mignolet, he preferred to give Willian a tap-in for 2-0.
As Mourinho celebrated, the mood inside Anfield darkened. The Liverpool bandwagon had run into a roadblock and Chelsea were on the move again. What a title race. What a season.
======================
Mail:
Liverpool 0-2 Chelsea: Jose Mourinho's men are the champions (against elite, at least) after Steven Gerrard slip gifts them victory
By Martin Samuel
They didn’t do a job. They did the job. Manchester City’s job as well as their own, the job that has been waiting to be done against Liverpool all season.
Another team may win the league, but against the elite clubs of England, Chelsea are the champions.
Victories, home and away, against Liverpool. Victories, home and away, against Manchester City. Six past Arsenal at Stamford Bridge and a draw at the Emirates.
Chelsea’s record against their equals this season is little short of stunning, with Sunday’s win the high point.
Jose Mourinho did not send out the reserves, as threatened, but this was still a team selected with one eye on Wednesday’s Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid.
Gary Cahill and Willian on the bench, Oscar in the stands. Petr Cech and John Terry injured, Ramires suspended.
Half strength? Quite possibly. Yet Chelsea deserved this, no matter the predictable howls of outrage about negative play. There is not only one way to win a football match, and no rules state a great team cannot be built from the back, just the same. Chelsea have not conceded a goal away from home against a team in the top four this season. If Liverpool knew how to defend like them, they would have been handed the trophy two weeks ago.
For all Liverpool’s possession, the outstanding performances came from men in blue shirts. Tomas Kalas made his first Premier League appearance for Chelsea and shut Luis Suarez out of the game.
Branislav Ivanovic, by his side, was a courageous, yet calming influence.
The full backs, not least Ashley Cole, were superb. Nemanja Matic in central midfield equalled his display away at Manchester City; Frank Lampard played as if 10 years younger.
And Demba Ba? He led the line, he scored the first goal and held off what appeared to be a permanent guard of three players. His work-rate was such that by the time he left the field after 84 minutes he could barely stand up.
How on earth did anyone believe Mourinho would give up the title without a fight, would come to Anfield and not wish to prove a point? He sent out players he knew would give everything, and some that could give everything, knowing they have no part to play against Atletico.
Liverpool will not kick a ball again for eight days, yet this may have taken more from them than it did Chelsea. The title is no longer in their hands if Manchester City keep winning, and that is a savage blow after so much expectation.
Chelsea will hope to capitalise on the nerves of the teams ahead, too. After this, who knows what the next twist will be? When Liverpool play again, at Crystal Palace on Bank Holiday Monday, May 5, they could be third. Mayday, mayday!
Amid all the drama came the ballad of Steven Gerrard. Poor Gerrard. No player has done more to drag his team into the title race, and none will hurt harder if this goes down as the day the title slipped from Liverpool’s grasp.
It was his mistake, of all people, that gifted the opening goal to Chelsea in first-half stoppage time.
A typical exchange of Liverpool passes ended with Mamadou Sakho squaring a ball to Gerrard. He opened his body to send it out across field, and mis-controlled. In trying to recover, he slipped and fell. The ball ran to Ba, who was suddenly away on goal with only keeper Simon Mignolet to beat.
His finish belied the theory that Chelsea are bereft of good strikers. His performance did the same.
Ba typified Chelsea’s resilience here. He often had Gerrard in front of him, Sakho behind him and Martin Skrtel coming across to do some bullying on the side. Yet, throughout, Ba gave as good as he got.
Meanwhile, at the opposite end, the Player of the Year, Suarez, was being frustrated by a 20-year-old from the Czech Republic, whose club experience this season amounts to two minutes.
Kalas had played two games for Chelsea before this; as an 89th-minute substitute in the Capital One Cup against Arsenal and coming on, again with a minute to go, against Galatasaray in the Champions League.
Starting him, in place of Cahill — wrapped in cotton wool with Terry injured — appeared a huge gamble. Less so when the game started. Two thunderous tackles, one on Suarez, announced his arrival and Kalas rarely put a foot wrong after that.
It helps that Ivanovic is one of the most spirited defenders in Europe, at right back or centre half, and that Matic and John Mikel Obi form a giant protective screen ahead. Brendan Rodgers accused Chelsea of parking two buses, but that is disrespectful. There was nothing wrong with the massed banks Chelsea placed in front of Liverpool; the fault lay in their failure to find a way through.
Gerrard, in particular, was reduced to trying a series of speculative shots from range, designed to make up for his earlier error. They only served to highlight that Liverpool were running out of ideas.
The Anfield crowd, so boisterous before kick-off, grew quieter, frustrated. Mark Schwarzer, in Chelsea’s goal, made several good saves, but it was hardly The Alamo.
A shot from Joe Allen after 59 minutes was the best of it, until second-half injury time when Schwarzer punched the ball clear to Suarez, whose shot required a fine recovery. From the next move of note, Chelsea gave the scoreline real emphasis.
Daniel Sturridge lost the ball to Fernando Torres and with Liverpool piling forward, Chelsea’s substitute had a clear run from the halfway line to Mignolet in goal. Willian kept him company and, at the last moment, Torres unselfishly squared for his team-mate to as good as run the ball in the net.
Mourinho, who before had been signalling for more encouragement and appreciation from the Chelsea end, made a brief sprint down the touchline before heading back and disappearing into the tunnel. Not so much as a handshake for his old friend Rodgers, although relations between the men may turn frostier after a churlish press conference.
Rodgers claimed this match would be good practice for next week’s visit to Selhurst Park, all long balls and long throws, but it sounded like sour grapes.
Mignolet had saves to make, too — from Cole in the sixth minute, and Andre Schurrle in the 62nd, and a Mohamed Salah shot in the first half struck Jon Flanagan on the arm in the penalty area.
Yes, there was time-wasting but nothing that we do not see on the continent. It seemed more of an attempt to knock Liverpool out of their stride, to prevent them playing with their usual pace and energy. If so, it worked. Liverpool were on a 16-game run of 14 wins and two draws, yet did not look like getting back into the game once Chelsea nosed ahead.
Mourinho, who was laid up with a stomach bug at the weekend and kept his distance from his team, had done it again. His detractors think he is popular because of what he says. He isn’t. It’s what he does that matters.
This is the second time a team have looked like walking away with the title this season and on both occasions it is Mourinho who has stopped the procession in its tracks. He is the reason we have a three-way title race going into May, the first in recent memory.
It is so much more than parking a bus, doing a job, playing like Palace. It is, in its own way, really quite special.
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Mirror:
Liverpool 0-2 Chelsea: Jose Mourinho's men deliver major blow to Reds' Premier League title chances
The Reds had won their last 11 games but fell short at Anfield, giving Chelsea and Manchester City a route back into the title picture
Cruel, cruel game.
Heartbreak for Merseyside. Despair for Brendan Rodgers.
And feeling the debilitating anguish more than anyone, his personal grief magnified a thousandfold, the man who has carried the hopes and fears of a club for more than a decade.
Amid Jose Mourinho's breast-thumping posturing, as the genius of the arch manipulator was demonstrated all over again, you would need a heart of stone not to feel for Steven Gerrard.
The Liverpool skipper has waited his entire career to be in this position, to have the title within his grasp, the chance to take the Anfield outfit over the line.
He, as much as anybody in Rodgers' side, had guided Liverpool to the brink of glory, the 11-match winning run which appeared to have destiny in its sails.
Yet when the story of this title race is told, the abiding image may not be his tear-strained "we go again; no slips" huddle imploration after the win against Manchester City but the slip that gifted Demba Ba the crucial opener.
Gerrard, fed by Mamadou Sakho, was waiting for the half-time whistle, the chance to reinforce his messages of calm patience, when he took his eye off the ball by the centre-circle.
Like a cobra, Ba - for the third time this month - struck, seizing on the moment, heading directly for goal, steering beyond Simon Mignolet, the hot breath of 12,000 devastated Kopites powerless to prevent it finding the back of the net.
The shock was palpable, intense, devastating.
And in that moment, although it was not until almost the final kick of the second half that Willian, played in by fellow substitute Fernando Torres, walked the ball home at the other end, you sensed Gerrard's dream, Liverpool's dream, may have come crashing down around them.
What will hurt Liverpool, so much, over the coming days, weeks, perhaps months and years, was that they had got so close, tantalisingly near.
That when the opportunity was there, against a Chelsea side with a rookie centre-half, featuring just three of the team that will start against Atletico Madrid on Wednesday and only Mark Schwarzer in the same position they failed to take it.
And that in the game where they needed Luis Suarez to show why he was last night named Player of the Year, he failed to come to the party.
A party which was transformed into something of a wake, bitter anticlimax, Rodgers' attacking armoury nullified, negated, by Mourinho's Blue blanket.
Effort, of course. But the inhibitions that have been banished since the turn of the year suddenly squeezing the life-blood out of Rodgers' men. Just five shots on target, only one - by Suarez in stoppage time - hit from inside the box. Not enough. Not nearly enough. Not at this stage of the season.
Chelsea, of course, were hardly the entertainers. They consumed time from the opening minutes, dropped back in a curtain in front of Schwarzer, filled in every hole, prompted and provoked, made Anfield boil with indignant fury.
But Suarez never isolated Tomas Kalas to test his mettle, Ashley Cole wore down Raheem Sterling, Nemanja Matic and John Obi Mikel clamped tight on Philippe Coutinho, Daniel Sturridge made no impact off the bench.
It led to too many forced, ambitious efforts, Gerrard shooting from anywhere, trying to make amends, only Joe Allen really extending Schwarzer.
And when it mattered, Chelsea took their opportunities, Ba doing the hard bit with his goal, Willian having a far easier task as he supported Torres' untenanted run in on the stranded Mignolet.
Of course, it is not over yet, although it felt that way as Martin Skrtel booted the ball away at the final whistle, Anfield briefly booed Chelsea for their game-plan, clapped politely and then rallied itself with cried in support of the team and the captain.
City still have to take maximum points from their last three games to deny Liverpool. After so many incredible twists and turns, in just the past few weeks, anything is possible even Chelsea coming through the middle and beating them both.
Yet, in brutal truth, the mood of misery will hang like a cloud over Liverpool until they run out at Selhurst Park next Monday.
For Chelsea, too, even as the celebrated, a feeling of missed opportunity. Mourinho will know he may have taken the title out of Rodgers' hands, but placed it in Manuel Pellegrini's. Nothing, though, compared to Gerrard's pain.
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Express:
Liverpool 0 - Chelsea 2: Jose Mourinho and Chelsea break Liverpool hearts
THERE was more than merely a bus parked at Anfield. A title bandwagon also came screeching to a halt.
By: Richard Tanner
As Jose Mourinho indulged in yet another of those touchline runs that have come to define the great victories in his managerial career, beating his hand on his heart and mouthing 'Chelsea, Chelsea' as he did so, it was hard to imagine him becoming any more unpopular in these parts.
The anti-christ playing anti-football? Not really. Evil genius? Perhaps. Whatever, this was a master-class from Mourinho in containment and counter-attacking, nothing that contravened the rules, but a blueprint which laid the foundations for a triumph that brings a fresh twist to this absorbing title race.
It was not aesthetically pleasing, but it was undoubtedly effective. Liverpool were set questions and, for once, could not find an answer to be left fretting that the damage to their hopes has been done.
The pain was obvious for none more so than Steven Gerrard, whose mistake and subsequent loss of footing allowed Demba Ba to secure an advantage the visitors never looked like relinquishing with Willian's last-gasp runaway goal compounding the misery.
Gerrard's career is intrinsically linked with football's highs and lows, more than he would want have come against Chelsea, and he is now left praying for Manchester City to slip up given the destiny of the title is back in their hands by virtue of a superior goal difference should they win their game in hand.
Liverpool will never have craved an Everton success more than when City head to Goodison Park next Saturday.
That the goals both came in added time carried an extra irony given the howls of protest from the home gallery at Chelsea's repeated attempts to waste time which had started within minutes of the kick-off.
Referee Martin Atkinson did his job by totting up the seconds Chelsea spurned in taking throw-ins and goal-kicks, and more than the three additional minutes signified by the fourth official at the end of the first half had been played, when Mamadou Sakho aimed a square ball at his captain. Gerrard took his eye off the pass, it rolled under his foot, and then he slipped in trying to retrieve the situation, watching in horror as Ba raced through and clinically dispatched the opportunity.
It was smash and grab, but Mourinho's plan had already been put in motion.
Chelsea set up as Brendan Rodgers would have expected. Men behind the ball, as many as six stretched out in a line when Liverpool were in possession, and waited for an aberration. This was not some cunning scheme never before seen, but Mourinho at his most pragmatic; doing what other teams had failed to do against the leaders for the past 11 Premier League matches and deny the hosts space. Liverpool had nowhere to run and so there was not the blitzkrieg start that has characterised their campaign and, crucially, no early goal.
A cross from Luis Suarez found Philippe Coutinho at the back post, on the angle of the six yard box, but his volley went into the crowd.
Moments later, Sakho found himself in a similar position and there was to be a similar outcome as he swung his right boot at a Suarez shot that had arrowed towards him.
Rodgers' team have been so devastating through the middle this season, but here they ran into a blue wall and appeared to forget in the process that a draw would have been good enough to keep them clear.
Too often Coutinho's threaded passes rattled against Chelsea legs, or Suarez jinked down a cul-de-sac rather than into open space.
Chelsea youngster Tomas Kalas, while being superbly protected by Nemanja Matic and John Obi Mikel, did not look like a debutant whose two previous substitute appearances had both come in the 89th minute. Gerrard tried to atone with numerous shots and a header which Mark Schwarzer saved, but too few of his team-mates stood up when they were needed. Joe Allen had a volley saved and Suarez saw a shot beaten away by the goalkeeper.
What Liverpool's performance revealed was not only are they missing the energy of the suspended Jordan Henderson, but just how little the manager can affect matches with his substitutions. A half-fit Daniel Sturridge came on followed by the hapless Iago Aspas.
That will be Rodgers' real frustration today, although the barbs he hurled at Chelsea's rearguard display afterwards merely highlight how his relationship with Mourinho will not - and cannot - survive the rivalry both clubs hope will endure.
Chelsea - their starting line-up costing £10m more than Liverpool despite the talk of a weakened team - introduced Willian, Gary Cahill and Fernando Torres.
And it was Torres who led the breakaway in the final seconds that saw him square to Willian and seal Mourinho's theatrics.
They are back in the race, Liverpool, in contrast, will hope theirs has not been run.
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Mignolet 6, Johnson 6, Skrtel 8, Sakho 7, Flanagan 6 (Aspas 81); Lucas 6 (Sturridge 58 5), Gerrard 5, Allen 7; Sterling 6, Suarez 6, Coutinho 6.
CHELSEA (4-2-3-1): Schwarzer 7, Azpilicueta 7, Ivanovic 8, Kalas 8, Cole 8; Matic 8, Mikel 7; Salah 7 (Willian 60 7), Lampard 7, Schurrle 7 (Cahill 77 6); Ba 8 (Torres 84).
Booked: Salah, Lampard, Cole, Torres.
Goals: Ba (45), Willian (90)
Referee: Martin Atkinson (West Yorkshire)
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Star:
Liverpool 0 - Chelsea 2: Steven Gerrard's costly error gifts the Blues victory
YOU wonder how many gallons of petrol it took to drive the big blue bus 1,300 miles from Madrid to Liverpool.
By David Woods
Five days after thwarting free-scoring Spanish table-toppers Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, Chelsea did an even better job on the similarly attack-minded Premier League leaders.
Again, it was not pretty and many opposing fans' idea of anti-football.
But, aided by another nightmare against the Blues by Steven Gerrard, Jose Mourinho and his men are now well and truly back in the title race.
Even without his skipper John Terry, playmaker Eden Hazard, star keeper Petr Cech and main striker Samuel Eto'o, Mourinho came up with a masterplan to thwart his one-time student Brendan Rodgers.
Only three of his starting line-up - Branislav Ivanovic, Cesar Azpilicueta and Mark Schwarzer and will definitely face Atletico on Wednesday in the second leg of their semi-final, and just keeper Schwarzer in the same position.
With rookie Czech defender Tomas Kalas having his first taste of top-flight action - alongside regular right-back Ivanovic in central defence - Mourinho's men defended as if their careers, maybe even their lives, depended on another shut-out.
You could say Atletico and Liverpool were left bruised, or rather black and blue - for they were the colour of the shirts the west Londoners wore on Tuesday and yesterday.
But the game turned on a horrible howler by Gerrard, four years after another boob by the inspirational Liverpool and England skipper handed the title to Chelsea.
It was another Sunday shocker for Gerrard and one which may haunt him far more than the first.
His slip allowed Demba Ba to ran through and slot in in the third and final minute of first-half stoppage-time.
On May 2, 2010, Gerrard's backpass was seized on by Didier Drogba, who scored, with Frank Lampard getting a second in what was also a 2-0 away win.
It ended up ensuring the west Londoners landed the title, a point ahead of Manchester United.
But in that 2009-10 the Anfield outfield finished seventh, 23 points behind Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea.
This time, Liverpool are in the thick of it at the top, still leading but with the Blues and Manchester City breathing down their necks.
Gerrard will now surely be the most anxious man in Merseyside, waiting to see if this first home defeat since a 1-0 loss to Southampton on September will cost his beloved club a first title in 24 years.
After 11 straight league wins, the Reds were red-hot favourites, but this result - substitute William gained the second after Liverpool were left horribly exposed to a breakaway at the death - opens everything up again, with Chelsea now two points behind with two games to play.
The visitors' tempo, or lack of it, was set early on with Gerrard having to wrestle the ball off Mourinho in the eighth minute to take a throw.
Having sent Atletico supporters mad in Madrid, Mourinho made Anfield fans livid in Liverpool. "Boring, boring Chelsea," they sang, but the Portuguese did not care a jot.
Luis Suarez, like Gerrard, had an off-day and when the home side did threaten it was midfielder Joe Allen who forced Schwarzer into a good stop in the second-half, as he turned away the Welshman's volley.
Simon Mignolet bettered that, getting his left hand to an Andre Schurrle curler.
Gerrard, so desperate to make up for his error, fired well wide of both posts and sent a tame header straight at Schwarzer. It was just not his day.
When Suarez managed a half-volley on target, Schwarzer was perfectly placed to tip over.
Referee Martin Atkinson did eventually book a Chelsea player - Ashley Cole - for time-wasting in stoppage-time.
Even then the left-back did not exactly speed things up, taking a drink of water!
That came after Mourinho - struck down with a bug - found the energy to orchestrate some more noise from the travelling support.
He was jumping down the touchline soon after when Nemanja Matic dispossessed former Chelsea player Daniel Sturridge and sent former Liverpool idol Fernando Torres away.
Poor Gerrard was the last man standing, but there was nothing left in his legs to even try to foul his former team-mate, who ran through to tee up another substitute William to tap home.
It could be Mourinho's "little horse" will get up on the line to pip the Liverpool thoroughbreds.
Gerrard will be praying that dreaded result does not happen!
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