Jose Mourinho and Chelsea must have earmarked Saturday’s clash between Liverpool and Manchester United at Anfield as a day when they could count on clawing back at least two points in their title chase with league leader Manchester United. After all, Anfield has been an absolute fortress for Liverpool this season: 11 wins and three draws all season, with no goals against in its previous nine games. The Sky Blues themselves even lost there — and comprehensively, we might add.
That’s why “it must be soul-destroying for Chelsea,” as Man United utility man John O’Shea put it, to have watched the Red Devils steal victory from absolutely nothing in the dying seconds on Saturday. It was O’Shea, in fact, who notched the unlikely winner, slotting home a rebound from a low, hard Cristiano Ronaldo free kick into an open net. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson called it “the luck of champions.”
Indeed, this is a match Liverpool dominated — it’s hard to remember a decent Man United shot on goal all game long. At the very least, the Reds deserved a point for several near misses and a goal that (questionably) was called back for offside. That’s no longer here no there, however, as the 1-0 victory amounts to what many are already calling “a championship win.” Later in the day, Chelsea did its part, laboring to a somewhat lucky 2-0 away win to Portsmouth to keep the distance between the Chelsea and United nine points. Chelsea, remember, still has a game in hand, and it also has the chance to take three points when Man United visits Stamford Bridge in late April.