Liverpool 0 Chelsea 2: Over the next fortnight, it might still be that Steven Gerrard can look back at the extraordinary way this game unfolded and reflect that he got away with it. For now, however, nobody can be sure of the consequences and potentially there was one moment when everything started to unravel: Gerrard, in front of the Kop, making the sort of mistake that threatens to stick to his conscience like superglue.
Gerrard will always be haunted by his error – if it proves to be a grievous setback for Liverpool – and it would need a flint heart not to try to imagine the scale of his trauma. Yet this is a hard business, as he knows only too well, and teams that want to win the league cannot be as generous as he was when Mamadou Sakho's pass rolled under the foot of Liverpool's captain and Demba Ba was suddenly running clear to score the goal that changed everything.
Gerrard could be seen later in the match with his shoulders starting to sag and team-mates having to encourage him to shake it out of his system.
But he never did. He knew the ramifications and, in the second half, Liverpool’s efforts to retrieve the damage carried none of the elegance and vigour that has been the hallmark of their season.
Chelsea defended with structure, brilliance and the kind of resilience that seems to come almost naturally to his team on the big occasions and it culminated with Liverpool, trying desperately to find a dramatic late equaliser, losing the ball in the middle to leave Fernando Torres and Willian running clear.
The two substitutes had nothing between them and Simon Mignolet but open air. Torres set up Willian for an open goal and Anfield was silenced. That was the moment Mourinho could be seen on one of his victory runs, beating his chest, letting out all the pent-up emotion.
Mourinho will be accused of a lot of things in the analysis and, yes, it is difficult to remember many uglier wins. Yet his ability to lay these traps is still second to none. Call it anti-football, or whatever you like, but it works. His tactics were cynical, maddening and, ultimately, spot on – and it has potentially blown a gaping hole in Liverpool’s title hopes.
Lest it be forgotten, this was also a Chelsea side drawn up largely with the second leg of their Champions League semi-final against Atletico Madrid in mind. Mark Schwarzer, Branislav Ivanovic and Cesar Azpilicueta will start on Wednesday. Ashley Cole has a decent chance but no guarantee. 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 recently joked that his role at the club was to be a training-ground cone. To put it another way, he had played more extra time than normal time. Yet he demonstrated here why he has already won a cap for the Czech Republic. He and Ivanovic were superb in the centre of defence. Azpilicueta and Cole matched them while Mark Schwarzer showed again that he will not be easily fazed.
Mourinho’s team had given everything to make sure this could not be added to the occasions when visitors to Anfield were blitzed in the opening half an hour. It was calculated, often unsatisfactory, and in the worst moments the man who sneered at West Ham’s 19th century football earlier in the season appeared to have gone back at least 50 years into history.
Chelsea's players tied their shoelaces. They suffered cramp. They pretended they could not hear the referee's whistle and, when they had a throw-in or a free-kick, nobody was ever in a rush to take it. The ball came to Mourinho by the side of the pitch and there was a telling little scene as Gerrard and Jon Flanagan tried to wrestle it off him and Chelsea's manager spun it behind his back and tossed in out of their reach. That was six minutes in.
If there was a defining image of the first half, it was Martin Atkinson holding up his arm and pointing at his wristwatch. At one point, Andre Schurrle turned the ball back to Schwarzer from the half-way line. Luis Suarez, of all people, could be seen sarcastically applauding Schwarzer.
The crowd howled their derision, incensed by the spoiling tactics. Yet Atkinson, despite admonishing Schwarzer at one point, added only three minutes at the end of the first half and what an irony it was that this was when Chelsea seized their moment.
Their first chance came from a corner. Kalas had a clear run but could not get a clean connection. It was a minute later when Gerrard miscontrolled, slipped and then had to watch Ba slipping the ball past Mignolet.
Liverpool had no choice but to take risks in the second half but it was not until extra time again that they really threatened Schwarzer. Suarez chose a bad day to have one of his least distinguished performances and Gerrard, in his desperation to make amends, just kept on making mistakes.
Willian slipped the ball into an empty net and Liverpool must fear all that brilliant momentum has gone.
(Guardian Service)
