Liverpool grabbed an early lead, but still fell to Chelsea 2-1 in a heated match that featured surprisingly open play, seven yellow cards, and some questionable referee decisions.
Emre Can, who started because of his fine performance against Real Madrid, was the ideal physical match up for Chelsea's strong midfield and played well until he tired out in the second half. In the 9th minute he drove at Chelsea's back line, and when no one closed him down, unleashed a long range shot that was deflected past Thibaut Courtois by Gary Cahill to give Liverpool a 1-0 lead.
The Reds could only hold the advantage for five minutes though, as they conceded once again from a poorly defended set piece. Simon Mignolet made an incredible initial save of a John Terry header, but he couldn't stop the follow up effort from Cahill with the ball just barely crossing the line.
Liverpool showed promise after the equalizer, but they failed to create any clear cut chances. Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho repeatedly made the Chelsea midfield look slow as they burst through the middle of the pitch and ran at Terry and Cahill, but without any killer runs being made behind the center backs, these promising moves often puttered out around the edge of the penalty area.
Towards the end of the half Liverpool were lucky to avoid conceding a goal when sloppy passing and turnovers in the defensive midfield led to multiple Chelsea breaks that were only just snuffed out by last ditch defensive efforts.
Meanwhile, tempers began to flare between the teams. Diego Costa and Martin Skrtel spent most of the match in their own WWE battle, and it's a wonder that both players stayed on the pitch for the full 90. Raheem Sterling and Ramires had a big collision in the 43rd minute, and Sterling was shown a yellow card by referee Anthony Taylor despite the brunt of the contact coming from Ramires' elbow into Sterling's face. This was just one of many questionable decisions by Taylor on the day.
Diego Costa scored the winner for Chelsea in the 67th minute, rifling a shot into a vacated net after Cesar Azpilicueta had eased past Coutinho to smash a pass across the face of the goal that was parried into empty space on the right side of the box. Costa seems to have an innate ability to be at the right place at the right time, much like Didier Drogba did during his first stint at the Stamford Bridge when he bagged goals for fun.
There were legitimate Liverpool penalty shouts in the 88th minute when Cahill clearly used his arm to block a long range shot from Steven Gerrard, but Taylor waved away Anfield's furious shouts. He was wrong, plain and simple, and Liverpool should have had a chance to snatch a late equalizer from the spot.
However, Anthony Taylor is not what's wrong at Anfield. Chelsea were the better team today, and Liverpool continue to be plagued by the same infuriating issues. The Reds have no one to finish off fluid counter attacking movements and the defense is leaking goals because of stupid mistakes. That's what needs to be addressed.
After the match Brendan Rodgers said, "We worked so hard in the game, we need those decisions. It was quite obvious, it hits his hand, it was a clear clear penalty and the referee has a clear view of it. The players gave everything and we deserved at least a point."
No we didn't Brendan.
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