It was a beautiful little cross by SWP which caught the Liverpool defense napping. There was some incidental contact between Carragher and Florent Malouda and the Chelsea winger went down but he was nowhere near the ball to do any damage.
It hardly raised any eyebrows as Drogba chased the ball down and the rest of the Chelsea players never really reacted. But Rob Styles had different ideas and whistled for a penalty. It was quite unbelievable. Lampard gratefully accepted the gift and Chelsea equalized.
Liverpool went up a goal scored by Fernando Torres in a lovely bit of hustle and pace when he blew past Tal Ben Haim and angled his shot past Cech after as he was put through with a gem of a pass by Gerrard. It was Torres first goal and it could not have come at a better place or against a better opponent.
Other than that it was a grim and dreary game mostly fought midfield. Riise is a bonafide hoofer who kills all chances with that one foot speed. And Chelsea became predictable in attack as everyone tried to find Drogba who was quite effectively shut down by Carragher. Things picked up a bit for Liverpool when Babel came on and he showed a few great touches including a cross that Riise should have been able to put away but Cech closed down quickly.
Chelsea needs to put away games because early next year key players like Salomon Kalou and Didier Drogba will be missing for the Africa Cup for at least a couple of weeks. They are now five points ahead of Man Utd which this early is huge.
Torres showed his talent but he also showed a few terrible flaws when he was not able to provide a decent pass and showed a penchant for soliciting cheap fouls. He was given a earful by Terry when he tried drawing the Chelsea captain into committing one. But this match was overshadowed by a micromanaging Rob Styles who doled out the yellow cards and fouls in an arbitrary fashion.