We were second best for all of 90 minutes. For most parts it looked like we were playing in Anfield. The Reds showed the real passion and desire to get three points. I thought they would be defensive.

They outplayed us in every department. Credit to them. I’m happy that we didn’t lose our home league record today. It’s still so disappointing and frustrating for me that we did not take advantage of Man Utd’s slip. Chelsea struggled at home to beat a weak and battered Liverpool, one full hour after Man Utd were defeated at home. Before the kick off we knew that Man Utd were at touching distance, a win could put lots of pressure on Arsenal, Liverpool would be missing key players and don’t have quality back ups like in our case, Liverpool is under tremendous pressure, Rafa Benitez could even get the sack if we had won etc etc.

On our side, Mikel and Lampard were back. We are playing at Stamford Bridge. Everything pointed towards a Chelsea win. It required a special effort from Chelsea to drop points under these circumstances. Liverpool played their best match at Stamford Bridge for many seasons, and the pity is they were poor too.

Team selection was flawed. Any layman like me could make out that Lampard should have been on the bench at best. Unless there is a dire need, returning players should play for reserves and then join the first team only after they are match fit. After getting Lampard back after many weeks, playing him against Liverpool at this crucial juncture was not a smart idea. On the other hand, we have a match-fit Mikel who was on the bench. I’m not sure if Grant knows how get the formation right when he has to play Mikel as well as Makelele. They are not incompatible players as it is made out to be. They are intelligent footballers who can play according to their roles and responsibilities assigned to them. Mikel can play in central midfield or in attacking midfield. In fact, it was JM who brought the defensive midfielder in him and made him give a run for Maka’s and Mikel’s money. When Mikel came on in the second half, it must have been in an attacking role, in which case he could have started in that role ahead of Lampard. Don’t tell me that he came on in a defensive role, I’m lost for words then.

The home league record thingy surely played on Grant’s mind. That’s a major burden he carries. The day he loses that record, or may be the day after, I think he would be a relieved man. Yesterday, Grant did not want to push Liverpool to get a win for the fear of failure. He does not want to be the manager under whom the illustrious record was broken. When Chelsea was trailing or drawing at Stamford Bridge, I have not seen Chelsea performing so badly. Look back at those late winners of the last season. That was not a coincidence that we got so many goals at later stages of the match. We attacked and threatened the opposition until we got ourselves into a level of comfort. That’s why the last gasp winners were not termed lucky. We had always dominated the opposition to deserve the goals or the wins.

The first half belonged to Liverpool. Chelsea had no shots on goal while Liverpool were banging every now and then. Crouch was a constant menace. Carvalho and Alex failed to get the better of the tall striker. In just few minutes I could make out that Belletti was losing out to Babel. The Dutch winger had our man in his pocket and I let a sigh of relief when Rafa replaced him with a mediocre Pennant. We could not have complained if Liverpool had gone a goal ahead by half time. At half time, I strongly felt that there were only two possibilities – either a lucky 0-0 draw or a 0-1 defeat.

Still I expected some magic to happen at the halftime so that we come out as a different team in the second half as we have done many times before. I was in for a rude shock. It was the visitors who got stronger and stronger. They were running faster and tackling harder. It was them who had the desire to win and wanted to get the three points badly. I’ve never seen the Pool playing like this in the Bridge. How times have changed. The only serious involvement from Reina was when he had to save a defensive header from Riise. It’s so bloody shameful! In all of 90 minutes, we had only one decent chance (by Ballack) while Crouch himself had more than a hattrick of chances.

I know the players were out on an international break during the week, but we had the pleasure of playing at home against a team whose season is crumbling by the day. It is exactly at these times, we should be playing intelligent football. We knew the circumstances. We knew that Liverpool will come in with a defeatist mentality and we should have made the best of Liverpool’s agony by grinding out this match. We had to make Liverpool to starve for the ball and dent their confidence. What would you say about Rafa’s confidence of coming to the bridge with a rookie centre-half? How well did we test Skrtel?

Arsene Wenger had never beaten Chelsea in the last few seasons. Now he has. Portsmouth have never managed a point against Chelsea in many years. Now they have. In the past three seasons, Rafa’s Liverpool could not even get one single point at Stamford Bridge. Now they have. What are we now going to offer to Man Utd – a historic win at the Stamford Bridge? Right in the middle of the 9-match winning streak, didn’t I say something about Chelsea bottling it up against decent oppositions? didn’t I say something about diminishing passion and desire all around? Again this was a match where the players were poor. This is exactly when Grant should have stepped in. Deliver an inspirational speech, kick their butt and infuse some confidence and enthusiasm into the players, make some timely and effective substitutions and turned the match around.

TimesOnline had this piece titled “Avram Grant’s men stumble when it matters” which very much matches (in newspaper lingo) with what I have to say:

Of greater concern to Chelsea is their continued failure to beat their big four rivals under Avram Grant, who has seen only one point from three matches against Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool. The Israeli was partially justified in attributing a strangely lacklustre performance to fatigue among a squad diminished by injuries and the African Cup of Nations, although as his options increased yesterday with Frank Lampard’s recovery from a thigh strain and John Obi Mikel’s return from Ghana duty, it will also raise fresh doubts over his leadership.

Managerial reputations are earned by performances under pressure in big matches. A surprising Champions League win away over Valencia has been Grant’s only real result of note and even that achievement has been diminished by the Spanish team’s implosion this season.

A more accomplished team would have taken advantage of Chelsea’s off day to inflict their first home defeat for four years, but the visiting side created too little to have any complaints about the result.

In about a week’s time, we should be complete with most of the players becoming available. Probably we will have the strongest Chelsea XI of the last two years for the upcoming games. Grant must decide on the formation that we are going to play and also decide on which midfielders would play. Going by form, Lampard should sit on the bench. In the English league, for the Chelsea system, if you offer me Lampard and Ballack, I’d chose Lampard anyday. But when Ballack is in good form and Lampard has just come from a 8-week lay off, it should be Ballack on the pitch and Lampard on the bench.

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Anyway, let’s hope that Arsenal gets knocked off by Blackburn which would make this a very decent result. If Arsenal wins today we would be trailing by 8 points, add one more point for goal difference, then it is 9 points deficit with 12 more games to go. In simple terms, we should win all 12 games remaining (incl the ones against Arsenal, Man Utd, Everton, Man City and Tottenham) and expect Arsenal to lose atleast 3 games. We certainly need a miracle but I believe in miracles.