A fantastic first half from Chelsea was enough for them to further sink Liverpool in the title race, claiming a 2-1 win with goals from Eden Hazard and Samuel Eto’o despite Martin Skrtel scoring the opening goal.
Besides great football in the first half, we had a bit more aggressive and tense second half, with Chelsea more concerned about keeping the scoreline as is, while Liverpool once again showed their lack of depth and quality on the bench, not to mention Howard Webb being the second consecutive referee delivering a great dose of injustice on the Reds.
Samuel Eto’o could have been sent off before two minutes have past, but his vicious foul on Jordan Henderson went without a booking. Liverpool did score from that set piece, as Martin Skrtel made the most of some confusion in the box, scoring the opening goal.
From that moment until the end of the half it was all Chelsea, almost. Eden Hazard, Willian and Oscar provided fantastic pressure on the Liverpool midfield which wasn’t able to create any counter attacks or get the ball to Luis Suarez, with Raheem Sterling often the only outlet for dangerous situations.
Eden Hazard made the most of a bad touch from Mamadou Sakho to hit the ball from outside the box and being too much for Simon Mignolet to stop. Terrible defending by Skrtel and bad positioning by Mignolet enabled Samuel Eto’o to end the striker-curse for Chelsea and complete the comeback.
In the second half Chelsea went back, allowing Jordan Henderson and Liverpool to find themselves in better opportunities, including Glen Johnson testing Petr Cech and Mamdou Sakho, heading the ball and nailing it to the crossbar.
Chelsea were the better team, but Howard Webb served Liverpool with some great injustice. Gary Cahill grabbed and dropped Luis Suarez in the box but no penalty was called. In the second half Samuel Eto’o simply kicked and tripped Suarez right in front of Webb in the box, but the terrible referee didn’t blow his whistle, instead just pointing awkwardly in the air. Eto’o should have been sent off for his foul on Henderson, and Oscar was as well with a very late challenge on Lucas. When you’re the inferior team and the referee is against you in the big decisions, you’ll probably lose.