Really . . who predicted this result? I even heard EurosportNews calling this an ‘upset’. I didn’t mean to think they were there for the taking but surely that result means the bookmakers would have lost more than they would have won this match. Fairplay to them. They came out as deserved winners. They showed more desire and determination than we did.

Quite early in the first half you knew this match wasn’t going our way. We were a bit lethargic and bit too laid back on the ball while they were bubbling around. It wasn’t goof to be easy as we were missing Lampard and Essien in the midfield while Drogba came in at a stage where Pool were happy to sit back and deny us.

To not have Lampard and Essien in the midfield is an unfortunate situation. These two players are very key to Chelsea’s style of play. Both of them are extremely hard working box-to-box midfielders that cover every blade of grass on the pitch. Not just that, they are intelligent players who are quick to see and anticipate the moves and manoeuvres of the opponents and nip them in the bud. This did not happen with Ramires and Zhirkov yesterday. In crucial away matches such as this, this can be quite important.

Torres score two beautiful goals. I don’t want to take anything away from him or Liverpool. On the other hand, I have to say that we made it easy for them. The ball that was served to Torres on both occasions should not have been allowed in the first place. They should have been prevented by some regulation midfield efforts to put pressure and close in gaps. I see a lot of losing patience with Ramires. I’d go easy on him. I think he’s got good passing range. It’s in his reading of the game where he made some mistakes.

In the first half, we gave away the initiative and momentum. Our midfield were not and could not boss the game. Normally, it’s the midfield trio of Lampard, Essien and Mikel that controls and scripts the game for us. With they being absent, Pool could have come with a ploy to hassle our relatively weak midfield. In their defence, it’s not often this trio of Zhirkov, Mikel and Ramires has played together and such a combination against a resurgent Liverpool in front of their new owners at Anfield proved a bit too flimsy.

In the second half, things did change dramatically. Chelsea came back and played with a purpose and started to attack from the word go. In the second half, you could had easily mistaken this for a Stamford bridge match. In the whole match Chelsea had about 65% possession despite the first half where we were second best. That shows how much we dominated in the second half. I’m not the one to quote the figures of possession, shots because they mean nothing if you don’t use them to score goals. I’m just trying to draw positives from an otherwise disappointing match. In the second half we showed what are we capable of. It’s just that we failed to do that in the first half and paid a dear price for it.

It isn’t so bad. We’ve lost to Man City and Liverpool now but have beaten Arsenal. The good thing is we’ve got the two crucial away matches (Anfield and Eastlands) out of our way now. Last season we had to play at Anfield in the penultimate match in our run up to the title. Though we came out comfortable winners then, it was a nervy away match to play so late in the league. At least we don’t have to be playing these teams late in the league when they fighting to get a European slot. I know this us heights of ‘looking on the bright side’ but you can’t deny the fact that we’ve got a couple of tricky away fixtures out of our way and still lead the table.

Congrats to Liverpool; they had their day yesterday. Good luck to them as they swim through the shit with their legs tied. So dies this win bring them back into title race? Stop wasting my time.

I think this match should serve as a useful wake up call for Chelsea and probably mean we should see more of Josh who is a baller that we didn’t have in our midfield yesterday. That also shows Ramires doesn’t unfortunately have too much time to settle in. For the first time this season Chelsea are in catching distance from the chasing pack. Time for Carlo to tighten the screws and show the league who the boss is.

I’ll leave you here. I was wondering what to do in this 4-hour budget flight. I’ve managed to write the whole post in my iPhone 4. Pity there’s no internet connection at 30,000 feet. Wonder how the Gods survive :)