Chelsea 1 - 1 Liverpool

Sunday 11^th November:

Chelsea 1 – 1 Liverpool

Today at the match it was easy to distinguish between the decent fans and those that society holds little hope for, you simply identified whether or not they were wearing a poppy to mark remembrance Sunday.

This encounter had developed into a must-win game for the blues due to the results of yet another exciting weekend in the Premiership. Both Manchester clubs came from behind to grab 3 points and hoist themselves as the clear top two in the table. A queue outside the pub was not ideal on a chilly Sunday afternoon. Once in it was the same old routine of pint swigging whilst refreshing twitter to receive the eagerly anticipated team news. With Luiz stricken with illness John Terry was back to captain the team after his four-match ban.  Strangely Azpilicueta was introduced with Ivanovic moving inwards and Cahill remaining on the bench. RDM seems to be apprehensive about playing the Terry-Cahill defensive partnership, strange when one considers their dual record for both club and country. Frustratingly Liverpool decided to play 5 defenders for the second year in a row (newspapers wrongly stated a 3-5-2-1 formation) and settling for a bore draw. A pathetic tactic rarely used by lower league opposition let alone a Premiership club.

Chelsea started on the front foot with Liverpool not able to establish any type of attack. The blues repeatedly knocked on the door with some decent counter-attacking football before the deadlock was finally broken 20 minutes in. The script had been written and up stepped captain John Terry to head home Mata’s swinging corner. The little Spaniards set piece play has been magical all season, assisting with corners and scoring free kicks for fun – he’s like Zola but with a beard. Terry celebrated as if it was his first ever goal for Chelsea, marking his comeback perfectly to the delight of the crowd. Sadly the comeback was to be short-lived as Ramires tackled Suarez and sent the Liverpool striker hurtling into Terry, the harrowing scream echoed around the stadium and fans began to fear the worse. Thankfully John was lucky not to break a bone and will be out for weeks rather than months. There was still time for Mata to miss a glorious opportunity to double our lead before half time. Liverpool had two chances in a game of complete Chelsea control and took one of them, the smash and grab involved a flick on from a corner before who else but Suarez found the back of the net. After that it was all Liverpool and the reds could have won it at the death. A poor result that was no reflection on the exceptional Chelsea performance, proving once again that you need to take your chances in the Premiership when on top.