Chelsea FC pulled themselves back into the title race as Jose Mourinhoai??i??s men grabbed a brilliant 0-2 win over Liverpool FC at Anfield.
This means that Chelsea are now just two points behind the Merseyside club and Liverpool will have to hope that Manchester City drop points in their remaining matches in order to lift the title. Jose Mourinho produced another tactical master class on the day as they successfully contained the most dangerous attack on the league with a make shift defence.
Mourinho made a lot of changes to the side, as he revealed earlier, with 20-year-old Tomas Kalas starting at the center of the defence alongside Branislav Ivanovic. The away sideai??i??s tactics was clear from the first whistle as they looked to frustrate the home side and the fans and disrupt their gameplay. Despite dominating possession Liverpool failed to break down the Chelsea defence and it was the London club who took the lead just before half-time and there was an irony as to how the goal arrived.
Steven Gerrard slipped following Mamadou Sakhoai??i??s pass and Demba Ba latched on the ball and ran through on goal, before scoring past a hapless Simon Mignolet. Liverpool pressed hard in the second half and threw everything at Chelsea, but Mark Schwarzer and Chelseaai??i??s defence held on to the lead. Finally in the injury time, Fernando Torres set Willian through on goal, who settled the match by doubling Chelseaai??i??s lead and ending Liverpoolai??i??s 11-match winning streak.
Despite this win, Jose Mourinho played down Chelseaai??i??s title chances once again and insisted that Liverpool and Manchester City are still the favourites.
“We’re back in nothing. At this moment we are almost third. With Everton’s defeat (on Saturday) we were automatically qualified for the Champions League.
“Now with these three points we need one point to finish third. Champions are only one (team) and the champions will be City or Liverpool.” ai??i?? The Chelsea manager said.
The Chelsea manager also dismissed suggestions that his side used negative tactics, instead he was proud of the fact that his side managed to do a double over both Liverpool and Manchester City this season.
“It was about winning. We deserved to win, no doubt about it. It’s as simple as this.
“With the result at 1-0 for 45 minutes, we were always comfortable. We were never in trouble against a team that is a fantastic team, a team that has beautiful players and scores a lot of goals and smashes every team that comes here.
“Now we can say we won both matches against the champions. If the champion is Liverpool, we won both matches against Liverpool; if the champion is Man City, we won both matches against Man City.” ai??i?? Mourinho added.
Chelseaai??i??s focus now shifts towards the second leg of their Champions League semi-final clash against Atletico Madrid, in what Mourinho described as the game of their lives.
“We played a good side.
“Many people would be expecting us to come here and lose three, four or 5-0 like many others did. When people know our focus was on Wednesday, probably many people think it’s impossible to get this kind of result.
“Now we have to think about Wednesday, and I would say the game of our lives. To play a Champions League semi-final at Stamford Bridge is something big.” ai??i?? He said in his post-match press conference.
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