Smash and Grab at Anfield - Liverpool Fume at Ref

Why is this significant I hear you ask? Well the scorer of Chelsea's winner today was Joey Cole, who came off the bench and within few minutes made his mark and sealed his little place in Chelsea history. Because earlier in the season at Stamford Bridge he did exactly the same. Came off the bench and scored the winner.

It has taken Chelsea all this time to record a winning double over Liverpool, but to do it in the same way is nothing short of remarkable and conincidental. Well they do say that life is full of coincidences.

For only the second time in thirteen Premiership games Chelsea record a victory at Anfield.

It has to be said that Liverpool can count themselves extremely unlucky to lose today. Three defining moments all went against Liverpool in a first half that Liverpool to be fair had complete control.

Firstly in the 21st minute, Lampard tackled Alonso which resulted in Super Frank being booked. Lampard's booking was his fifth of the season and now this means he misses Chelsea's FA Cup tie against Scunthorpe in a week's time. Chances are JM would have rested him anyway. Unfortunately for Alonso, he was substituted a few minutes later and it was subsequently discovered that he had broken his ankle.

Secondly in the 24th minute from a Liverpool throw-in, Sinama was causing Makelele all sorts of problems in the penalty area, Sinama went down and with The Kop end baying for a penalty, referee Mike Riley awarded a free-kick to Chelsea.

Thirdly and more clear cut came in the 38th minute from a free kick after Super Frank had fouled Hamann out on the Liverpool right. Stevie Gerrard (a future Chelsea player???) whipped in the free-kick and as blatant as Ashley Cole's handball at Newcastle the other evening, the ball struck Tiago's hand, again right in front of The Kop and with the players and the fans screaming 'blue' murder for the penalty, Mike Riley was seen to move his whislte to his mouth and take it away again. At half-time Riley expalined that it was not a penalty as he had deemed it ball to hand, and the reason why he had moved the whistle to his mouth was that he was anticipating a second offence. Make whatever you want of that.

Alonso's injury took the gloss of Liverpool's preformance in the second half. The game became scrappy and Chelsea continued to frustrate Liverpool and JM's rock Super John Terry was strong and impervious at the back. In fact Super JT was named Man of the Match. He performance thoroughly deserved it.

The winning goal came eleven minutes from time. Joe Cole who came on as a substitute a few minutes before, struck a low shot from about twenty-five yards which took a deflection, after a corner from Chelsea's right at The Kop end was taken by Robben and the ball was headed back into Cole's path by the indifferent Glenn Johnson.

Liverpool will be kicking themselves tonight. They created chances but were unable to convert them. However they will be rueing the decisions of the referee Mike Riley.

From Chelsea's point of view. This was their fourth straight victory and WITHOUT conceding a goal. The Chelsea machine just continues to roll on regardless. Whilst SAF and AW and their teams are waiting for Chelsea to falter, at the moment you could justifiably argue can Arsenal and Man Utd keep up with us?

Only time will tell.