Young V Old - And The Older Man Wins

So Rest in Peace little man and enjoy your time floating around with the angels who will ensure that you are forever looking down on your mum and dad.

Today of course Luca was looking down on his dad's team as they entered into the fray at Stamford Bridge. A team that when announced contained some surprises.  Surprises, that were very welcome.  Craig Bellamy started and it was a welcome return to the first team for Maxi Rodrigeux who for reasons only known to Kenny appeared to have been forgotten.  Jamie was back, but was listed as one of the substitutes, as were the three players that had cost an amazing amount between them in the last two transfer windows.  These players of course, all appear to be having a crisis of confidence at club level and with today being such a high powered game, it was better for all concerned for them to be on the bench.

Andre Villas-Boas had also decided that Chelsea's most recent acquisitions would also start the game from the bench.  They were both ex-Liverpool players of course, players who decided that the Kenny revolution was not for them and who felt that the bright lights of London would serve them better.

But if Andre Villas-Boas was going to learn a lesson about life in the Premiership, he certainly learnt it today.  Liverpool showed that they were determined to win the game from the moment Lee Probert blew his whistle to start the game.  They were all over the place and some of the passes were fantastic to look at.  The pass and move that everyone talks about, was there in evidence once more and Lucas showed that good old fashioned tackling actually works.  To do this course, he earned a yellow card, but I am not sure it was actually warranted.

Chelsea did have a few moments of near glory when Juan Mata (who to be honest in my opinion is not worth all the hype he got) hit a volley across the goal and Mikel also sent a shot towards Pepe but it went wide. They did give their supporters hope when a free kick by Drogba was thought to have gone into the back of the net. It had not, it met the side netting instead and Drogba's face was a picture.

Other than that they appeared ordinary and it was a mistake by John Terry that gave Liverpool the chance they had been waiting for. Dirk had picked up a ball that should have reached him and passed it through to Suarez.  Unfortunately, neither Craig nor Maxi managed to finish the run and a chance was missed.  A chance that would again present itself several minutes later  with Maxi scoring in his first Premiership game this season.  Charlie Adam who was having an excellent game sent the ball towards Craig and Suarez who played with it for a few moments before feeding it to Maxi and the rest they say is history.

Liverpool were now full of confidence and Lucas picked up a ball, passed it to Suarez who then sent it towards Maxi but his ball was caught by Luis and it flew into the side netting.  It did not matter though and Liverpool went into the break ahead and looking the more confident team.  Kenny's magic was once more working whilst for all the crouching that Andre Villas-Boas did during the game; his team looked ordinary, old and totally inept of ideas.

Until the second half of course, when he made a tactical change, bringing on Daniel Sturridge in place of Mikel, who seemed totally out of his depth throughout the first half.  This seemed to give Chelsea the confidence boost that they needed or was it simply that Liverpool did as they always seem to do and that was too come out for the second half with their concentration on the slide so much so that mistakes are made.

That mistake was made as the clock reached 55 minutes when our defence seemed to forget, what it was supposed to be doing.  Malouda found a way through and Daniel Sturridge hit the ball home, to bring the game level and gave the home supporters an indication that they might just win.  This was brought home to them very soon after when if it had not been for a brilliant save by Pepe, Ivanovic would have made it two.

With Chelsea now full of confidence, Kenny played a couple of trump cards, bringing on firstly Jordan Henderson for Craig Bellamy and Stuart Downing for Maxi Rodrigeux.  This seemed to shore up the midfield but Chelsea were still having it too easy and Malouda sent a shot towards the goal which thankfully went over the bar.

With the match going into the final five minutes, Kenny replaced Suarez with Andy Carroll and Andre Villas-Boas responded by bringing on ex-Liverpool players Torres and Meireles, who were given just token run outs.

Who everyone had forgotten about was ex-Chelsea man, Glen Johnson, who picked up a ball from Charlie Adam, embarked on a fantastic run and the ball slide straight past, Chelsea's own Phantom of the Opera, Petr Chech, and straight into the back of the net.

Liverpool spent the next 5 minutes running the clock down and on the final whistle was the worthy winners of a slightly stressful but exciting afternoon that proved sometimes, the older you are and the more experience you have in playing the tactical game is the way to win matches.  Kenny got his team and his tactics completely right and already many people believe that Guus Hiddink is already in the wings waiting for the call from Roman, because his thoroughly modern young manager simply is not good enough