Here is an alternative fact: Liverpool can still challenge Chelsea for the Premier league title. Even by the standards of Kellyanne Conway, the counsellor of The Donald, that statement is a falsehood. In the fall, Liverpool had little problems to dispose of Conte’s outfit, but on Tuesday they where inept against the re-engineered league leaders, foregoing any pipe dreams of a grand comeback in the upper echelon of the Premier League.
Indeed, these four days may have heralded the apocalypse for Chelsea with a visit to Anfield Road and a match against Arsenal at the weekend. But even before Chelsea had kicked the ball, Arsenal were yet again showing their perplexing propensity and manic predisposition to self-inflict defeat at home to Watford. Within 13 minutes, Steve Bould’s eleven were trailing by two goals.
Liverpool did apply pressure on Chelsea in the opening minutes of the game, but they huffed and puffed, exuding much labour and little of the radiant fluency that had so earmarked their first half of the season. Going into the game, Liverpool were the Premier League’s leading scorers with 51 goals in 22 games, but in Chelsea they faced England’s best defence.
That was the sub-narrative of the clash between the champions elect and their supposed main challengers, in the light of ‘Fraudiola’s’ problems at Manchester City and Arsenal’s self-fulfilling implosion. The game was supposed to be a benign juxtaposition of superb attacking and superb defending but, in line with their failing form of late, Liverpool scarcely delivered in the final third.
Bucking the trend
Defences and attacks decide league titles – the order of importance, however, is contentious. Do rearguards or striking forces win one titles? Stats show that the best attack has won the title 16 times in England, the best defence just once. Thus, Chelsea and ‘Conte-naccio’ are bucking the trend.
Cue the irony when David Luiz opened the scoreline with a preposterous free-kick after 25 minutes of thoroughly uninspiring and tepid football – preposterous, because the much-maligned Brazilian whipped the ball past the wall when Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet was still adjusting it. Liverpool’s porous defence proved to be comic at this stage.
The cunning Luiz had come up with a plan so cunning that “you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel”. Everyone waited for Willian to take the free-kick, but instead, with Mignolet still waiving instructions to his defenders, Luiz ran up and smacked it into the net. His trickery had been of an audacity befitting the defender, who so often combines the banal and the brilliant, who oscillates between Sideshow Bob, with his hair gushing in the wind, and the Mineirazo Maniac, forever burdened by his demented deeds against Germany.
Minutes later, the Brazilian picked up a knock. Veteran John Terry and Kurt Zouma warmed up on the touchline, but after treatment Luiz resumed the match. His defence was rarely troubled, with Liverpool hoofing ball longs in the direction of Roberto Firmino.
Defence breached
On 57 minutes, Chelsea’s portcullis was breached. Adam Lallana and Philippe Coutinho had constructed a neat counter-attack, which Firmino, with plenty of time on the ball, contrived to squander, scooping the ball over from close range in the 48th minute. Chelsea didn’t heed the warning. They left James Milner unmarked at the far post and he teed up Georginio Wijnaldum to equalise – so much for Chelsea’s solid defence.
But Conte’s team maintained control of the match. Sadio Mane, Liverpool’s main striker, who had come on in the second half, was dealt with, and contained. In a frantic finale, the visitors should have snatched a victory. A semi-schwalbe – Dejan Lovren made contact with Diego Costa’s leg and the striker tumbled to the floor with the enthusiasm of a five-year rascal – earned Chelsea a penalty, but Mignolet, who, for much of the evening had been soliciting to be benched again, produced a fine, low save to his right.
In the end, Chelsea, who finished the stronger side, got a fully deserved point. Liverpool – and the other contenders with Arsenal losing 1-2 and Tottenham drawing scoreless at the mighty Sunderland – have ceded the Premier League title to Chelsea. The Blues can now contemplate a prolonged joyride until the end of May.
