Chelsea VS Match Review

To pursuit a higher peak of his career, Fernando Torres
supposedly left the Anfield faithfuls to move to a "Big"
club, Chelsea, and I wonder what will be his feeling
and reaction after his lousy performance and Chelsea's
7th defeat in the league and a double-win by Liverpool
yesterday night.

The fact that Liverpool won the match without any of
the recently recruited Suarez and Carroll made the victory
even more sweeter and succulent. With a renewed confidence,
and with vice-captain Carragher back from injury, the
Reds fought for every ball and defended well and strongly
against any onslaught and aerial assaults from the Blues.
Torres, Drogba and Anelka were shut off almost completely
throughout the whole match and their rare shots were
either saved by an alert Reina or cleared off and blocked
by the defenders or just flew wide and far from any danger.

Kenny had done superbly well in his recent team selection
and it is clear to see to see he is playing the team to counteract
the opponent's strength and then using our own strengths to
clear down the opponent's defence. The fact that Kenny employed
6 defenders against Stoke and 5 defenders against Chelsea shows
the intelligence and experience that Kenny has in dealing with
every difficult opponent. There may be some critics that the
tactic is conservative and old-time but as long as it works and
delivers the 3 points, it is a good tactic. And Liverpool had 13 points
out of the possible 15 points in the last 5 matches and 4 clean sheet
victory in a row signify that the team can really strive for the
Champion's League position as we are now at 6th and 6 points
from the leading pack.

Meireles once again provided the winning goal and it is his
fourth goal in the last 5 matches and he is playing as a very
confident player that just can't stop scoring. His goal in the
69th, 3 minutes after Torres was substituted was a timely strike
that the Reds are the Big club and the Blues are just the
pretender.

In the dying minutes of the match, I was expecting Kenny to
bring in Suarez in place of Kuyt who had work tirelessly throughout
the match, and use out some precious time leading to the final
whistle, but Kenny never did so. Maybe he wanted the players
and formation to stay intact for the last few minutes and allow
the players to walk off the field with their head held up high. 

The next match will be this Saturday against Wigan at Anfield
and followed by Europa League match against Sparta Prague
across 2 weeks. The away match against West Ham will be
the last match in Februray and in March, we have the Biggest
match against Man United on 6 March.