Who dares wins. As well as being the motto of the SAS it has always been the characteristic of a team which lifts football’s greatest prizes.
And Liverpool deserve to be back in the race for their 19th league title because they dared when Chelsea did not.
A simplistic explanation for the 2-0 victory at Anfield which saw Liverpool peg back Manchester United’s lead to two points, albeit having played a game more?
Perhaps. But, make no mistake, it was daring to win which was at the heart of Liverpool’s triumph, even if the two goals from Fernando Torres which won the game came so late.
True, Chelsea were unlucky to see Frank Lampard sent off on the hour mark for a lunge in which he appeared to play the ball in a tackle with Xabi Alonso.
But Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari had professed this to be a must-win game. He had acknowledged that their title hopes would be severely damaged even if they drew. Yet at no stage did it appear that Scolari was prepared to gamble.
Chelsea’s full-backs were shackled short of the halfway line.The team itself barely had a shot of note during the entire 90 minutes. That is not the hallmark of champions. To win, sometimes you have to be prepared to lose. And Chelsea’s caution was set in stone long before they went down to 10 men.
At least Liverpool set out to win. At least they looked like a side intent on erasing the introspection of the past few months which had so damaged their stirring start to the current season.
Just a couple of months ago Liverpool where eight points ahead of United. Since then we have seen Benitez’s rant against Sir Alex Ferguson. The alienation of Robbie Keane. The row over transfer control. Seven draws from 10 league matches.
Yet this was a must-win match. This was now or never. There were times when ‘never’ looked favourite, especially in a first half in which both sides appeared to be trying to pilfer a goal, rather than manufacture one from good, honest pressure of numbers.
Liverpool deserved to win because they possessed the superior invention, the drive of Steven Gerrard and the guile of Torres, whose sharpness for the first goal, in particular, suggested he could be a force in the title run-in now he has recovered from his hamstring injury.
They deserved to win because they dared to win. It is something Scolari should ponder.
BT
