Excellent Result

This is an excellent result for us in the true tradition of our European heritage. You don't let the home team score and bring them back to Anfield to finish them off.

We were very unlucky not have an away goal as well we had the chances but to be fair so did Chelsea. It looks as though their luck against us has run out. Other than the totally unfair booking of Xabi who was booked because Gudjonssen had pushed the ball too far in front of himself and decided to take a dive, I really feel sorry for Xabi. Too lose your place in this match at Anfield in this way must be awful for him. I really do think UEFA need to review their policy on not appealing bookings; it should have been the Chelsea player who was booked.

As to the match itself there were many positives for us Reds to take out of this game.

1, Mourinho rarely makes tactical errors but he did here when he took Tiago off because it was only after this that Xabi started to influence the game. Until then Tiago had given Xabi very little time or space.

2, We have proved we can stop them from scoring.

3, The way we kept the ball away from Robben undoubtedly their most dangerous player is going to pose a problem for Mourinho.

4, The way we kept the ball away from the whole Chelsea team.

5, This was the first time I have seen Chelsea tire badly in the second half this season. I thought this was really noticeable and must be a worry for them given that their manager has been complaining about the number of games you have to play in the Prem and Cup completions.

6, Hopefully Raffa will have been convinced that on this performance Cisse deserves to start in the return match.

Bring it on

d'accord avec toi,george mais le problème reste entier pour le match retour.
1:morinho va à on avis mettre les remplaçants d'hier soir ce WE.nous nous devons faire un résultat ce WE,pas eux.

2:sans xabi ça va être dur!!!!

3:nous n'avons pas cédé mais c'etait bien la panique par moments!!!!

je ne suis ni optimiste ni pessimiste pour le match retour mais je me demande quel va être l'équipe pour mardi.
le milieu de terrain sera comment?
sais pas trop.

I don't think it was a case of panic, I think if you go to Stamford Bridge and don't concede then that is a good result. To go there and never give them an opportunity to score would be virtually impossible.

Ask yourself who had the most saves to make Dudek or Czech? Then remember we were the away team. This team has had to take the criticism when they have played badly. They deserve praise when they perform well.

As for the game this weekend I would rather have our home game against Boro ( Just heard Southgate the Boro Capt. and key defender is out after being injured last night) than theirs. They have to go to Bolton who are a physical side looking to qualify for Europe for the first time in their history. Chelsea have not won the title yet! I would prefer it if he did put out a weakened side against Bolton and they got beat( they might get beat anyway) and then came to Anfield not quite so full of confidence with the title still in the balance and the thought of having gone out last year in the 1/4 final in the back of their minds.

Alonso didn't play against Juve when we beat them at Anfield.

As for the team I stick with your selection with Hamann coming in for Xabi and possibly Cisse starting in place of Baros who was very poor last night. If he is playing as the sole striker he needs to be able to control and keep the ball when it is played to him. The times last night his control let him down or he gave the ball away were too often. I thought Cisse made a difference when he came on. I admit Chelsea were starting to tire at this stage.

In brief, I think it is fair to say last nights result will have done a lot more for the confidence of our players than it did for theirs.

The cracks are showing for Chelsea, now we need to exploit those cracks and Raffa is just the man to do it. The big concern remains that we do not pick up any serious injuries this weekend. We still need to beat Boro though we haven't given up on 4th place yet. Although I feel that last weekends performance against Palace was indicative of where the players see their priorities.