Ba Humbug: Mourinho’s Bus Crushes Liverpool

Football is dead, and our title dreams look to be going the same way. Today, Chelsea succeeded in demonstrating that dull, defensive, unimaginative play can yield results. For the first time all season, Liverpool fans were forced to endure 90 minutes of their team being frustrated time and time again by a defence that simply could not be penetrated. Despite being camped in their own penalty area for the vast majority of the game, Chelsea still prevailed as 2-0 victors, courtesy of goals from Ba and Willian.

Right from the outset, it was clear that Mourinho had no intention of switching from his usual strategy. Despite needing a win to keep any distant hopes of the title alive, he named an extremely defensive line-up, and the players’ instructions were clear: don’t leave your own half. Liverpool did their usual; at least they tried to. They came out all guns blazing, but upon arriving on the edge of the opposition area, they realised there was just no way through. Although most of the first half seemed to be being played in and around the Chelsea box, the Reds never looked like breaking the deadlock. Chelsea’s set-up and style of play was frankly repellent, but in fairness to them they executed it very well. Within the first minute they’d started time-wasting: this was reflected in the 3 minutes added on at the end of the half. Irony is a cruel thing- it was in this added time, which was only being played due to Chelsea’s cheating, that the away side pulled ahead. As if this twist of fate wasn’t already too much for Liverpool fans to take, it was the club icon, Steven Gerrard, who was at fault for the goal. He has been the figurehead of this title charge- the leader, the one everybody wants to win it for. It was his mis-control and slip that released Ba clean through on Mignolet. The Senegal striker made no mistake.

The second half was more of the same. About 10 minutes in, in a vain attempt to find a way through the Chelsea wall of defenders, Rodgers took off Lucas for the less-than-fit Daniel Sturridge. It was clear that he wasn’t yet ready to play; at least not in a match of this intensity and magnitude. Uncharacteristically, he failed to make any significant impact to the game. Joe Allen came close on a couple of occasions with speculative long shots, and Sterling had a penalty shout turned down, but in general a goal looked very much elusive. Chelsea forced us to resort to whipping balls into the box, where our lack of physical presence led to the ball being cleared time and time again. In the dying minutes of the game, Chelsea added insult to injury. Everybody was committed forward in a desperate attempt to salvage a point, and the ball broke to, of all people, Fernando Torres. Unchallenged, he ran the length of the pitch. At least he didn’t have the audacity to score against his former club- he squared the ball to Willian, who was left with a tap-in into an empty net.

But where does this result leave Liverpool? Mathematically speaking, the title is now out of our hands. Barring huge wins (we’re talking 6 or 7 nil) against Palace and Newcastle, City will take the league title on goal difference if they win their remaining fixtures. Psychologically speaking it’s a huge blow as well- we will have to show a real ability to bounce back against Palace next week, as anything but a win there will definitely end our dreams of the Premier League title. That said, it’s far from over. We are, after all, still top of the league! City have the game in hand- points in the bag are always better than a game from which points ‘should’ be gained. The pressure is now all on Manchester City- a potentially tough game against Everton still remains, and Aston Villa and West Ham have both proved to be a thorn in bigger teams’ sides at various points throughout this season. Of course it isn’t ideal to have to be relying on others, but, having come this far, we would be foolish to give up. Steven Gerrard will want to atone for his mistake (and atone properly, not just attempt many ridiculous long shots that kill our momentum), so you can be sure that everyone in the Liverpool camp will be hugely fired up for our last two games. Let’s hope this passion, passion that we’ve shown all season, combined with a little bit of luck, is enough to carry home the league title despite today’s setback.

-James Martin

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