Cole fires Chelsea past Liverpool
Joe Cole's second-half strike gave Chelsea a 1-0 victory against
Liverpool at Stamford Bridge to keep them snapping at Arsenal's
heels at the top of the English Premiership.
In the absence of Liverpool's injured skipper Steven Gerrard, the
substitute did his chances of starting for England against Wales in
the World Cup qualifier next Saturday no harm when he half-volleyed
in a Frank Lampard free-kick in the 64th minute.
Blues striker Didier Drogba limped off injured 38 minutes in and
without a specialist forward on the bench, Chelsea manager Jose
Mourinho sent on Cole to deputise up front.
The midfielder did not let his manager down and extended Chelsea's
unbeaten start to the season while condemning Liverpool to a fourth
straight away defeat.
"I have been trying to get in the box more and it's easy to score
when I get service like Frank's cross today," said Cole.
"Now we are right up there with Arsenal and we just have to keep
going."
The game pitted Mourinho, who masterminded Porto's success, against
Rafael Benitez who guided Valencia to the UEFA Cup title, both
managers new to their posts and under pressure to deliver
trophies.
Mourinho fielded the same side for the third consecutive match. The
Blues were buoyed by their 3-1 defeat of Champions League winners
Porto on Wednesday, when Liverpool slumped 1-0 at Olympiakos.
Reds right-back Josemi, charged with marking Damien Duff, clattered
the Republic of Ireland winger in the first minute but Duff soon
had the better of his opponent, regularly rounding the Spaniard as
Chelsea had the better of the opening exchanges.
Lampard had more space than he thought when Drogba rounded Jamie
Carragher to slip the ball into the box 12 minutes in.
But the England midfielder's turn and snapshot sent the ball
harmlessly wide of Chris Kirkland, who performed well on his return
to the Liverpool goal in favour of Jerzy Dudek.
The visitors failed to create sustained spells of pressure and were
limited to a few half-chances from crosses.
Reds striker Djibril Cisse rattled the Blues eight minutes before
the interval though when he skirted across the top of the penalty
box, but under pressure from right-back Paulo Ferreira, he curled
his powerful low shot just wide.
Mourinho was forced to change his plans a minute later, sending
Cole into attack in place of the injured Drogba.
Lampard missed futher chances just before the break when he stooped
to head a right-wing Ferreira cross wide and could not get a full
touch when sliding in to meet Duff's low centre from the other side
just before the break.
Both sides increased the tempo in the second half and Kirkland had
Harry Kewell to thank on 57 minutes when the Australia midfielder
headed a goalbound Cole shot off the line.
But Cole did not have long to wait to get on the scoresheet.
With his only remarkable intervention in the game, Salif Diao
brought down Alexey Smertin 30 yards out.
Lampard crossed the free kick in low for Cole who, running across
the face of goal, side-footed past Kirkland.
In search of an equaliser, Benitez introduced Euro 2004 top scorer
Milan Baros, Steve Finnan and Dietmar Hamann, but it was to no
avail as Chelsea completed an seventh clean sheet in eight
Premiership matches
