Steven Gerrard's Liverpool are down and almost out
after their European defeat this week. Photograph: Alex
Livesey/Getty Images
The current Liverpool side is the least of Chelsea's worries as they prepare for
a match at Anfield in which victory will put them on the verge of
the Premier League title or even make them
champions, depending on an outcome elsewhere. If results were all
that mattered, Manchester United would be more apprehensive about
their trip to the Stadium of Light, where Sunderland are unbeaten
since mid-December.
All the same, certain matters of plain fact will gnaw at
Carlo Ancelotti. His Chelsea side have won only half
their away matches in the Premier League and, while that is a
far from shameful record, it is a reminder of how simple it can be
to fail. They are not alone in being beaten at Wigan but going down
3-1 there in September was an ugly business.
Today's visitors to Anfield, however, are bolstered by other
statistics. While this line-up contains several players who are
turning into veterans or at least showing signs of wear and tear,
these are men who lead the table because they usually respond
to a challenge.
They can recall how capable they have been in the grand,
set-piece fixtures. Chelsea have won all five of this season's
league matches against Manchester United, Arsenal and Liverpool.
The 10-1 aggregate scoreline from those results confirms
how resounding the superiority has been.
That dominance will worry United more than any fear that
Liverpool, out of historic spite, will capitulate to Chelsea.
Ambivalence, to put it mildly, will be the prevailing mood in the
Anfield stands when the game starts but it is hard to imagine
Rafael Benítez's players taking care not to try. Fanatical effort,
after all, is the principal tone of the Premier League and sides
can barely envisage any other means of engaging with one
another.
Competition is a compulsion. As people have noted, Liverpool
came perilously close to conducting the coronation of United when
they beat Blackburn Rovers on the last afternoon of the season in
1995. In the event Sir Alex Ferguson's side ensured that the
silverware went to Ewood Park because they were held to a draw by
West Ham at Upton Park. Fifteen years ago Liverpool, who finished
fourth, did not even have a European Cup place to pursue, since
only the champions qualified then.
There is no cause to think that the present Liverpool squad will
lack integrity against Chelsea on Sunday . With Manchester City,
Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur all in action afternoon,
Liverpool's slight hope of a Champions League spot may almost have
vanished before they grapple with Ancelotti's team but professional
players will still want to show that their pride at least is
intact.
If United have anything to dread at Anfield, it is simply the
fact that Liverpool could lack the means to stop Chelsea. Last
night's deserved elimination from the Europa League by Atlético
Madrid, a side with better technique, demonstrated the decline of
Benítez's squad. The Liverpool manager's suggestion that five new
players are needed would have been questioned only by those who
think it is a conservative estimate.
Steven Gerrard, understandably, looks worn down by a dependence
upon him that became acute when Fernando Torres was struck down by
a knee injury. The England midfielder has nine league goals this
season and five of them were scored against sides in the bottom
third of the table. Benítez will have well understood the danger of
looking so often to Torres, Gerrard and, in a different fashion,
Jamie Carragher to prop up the club.
It was always too much to ask but there is scarcely the glimmer
of a suggestion that new ownership, let alone fresh transfer
funding, is in sight. No matter how honest they are in their
endeavours, Liverpool will probably look to be at a grave
disadvantage on Sunday. In plain physiological terms Benítez's men
should be overmatched. Those two draining hours against Atlético
may be felt against Chelsea, particularly as the match enters
its closing phase.
Benítez cannot do a great deal about that, since limited options
are a major part of his club's malaise. Expectations were surely
restricted when the forwards deployed as substitutes against
Atlético Madrid were Nabil El Zhar and Dani Pacheco. The
23-year-old El Zhar joined Liverpool in the autumn of 2006 and his
only goal to date came in a League Cup tie against Cardiff the
following year.
At 19, Pacheco is in his first season at Anfield and it is
entirely natural that he is yet to find the net – he has not
started any of the six matches in which he has featured. David Ngog
was on the bench against Atlético but Benítez had felt forced to
give him a place there. The manager then decided that the French
forward was still too affected by injury to be sent on to the
pitch.
If Liverpool's prospects on Sunday depend on rotating their
squad, Chelsea will be full of hope for a productive occasion.
Over the years the Anfield side has waged many a war against
the odds but a spectacular effort is now called for on a day when
there will be scant reward for such pugnacity.