Liverpool turned on the style at Stamford Bridge on Sunday, dominating much of the game. Unfortunately, as so often has been the case this season, we weren’t able to force the winner that we so richly deserved.
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Steven Gerrard cancelled out John Terry’s opener shortly before half-time and after the break their was only one team in it, with both Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson going close to a dramatic decider.
Here are five things we learned:
5) Raheem Sterling is still a wonderful young player
Good on you, Raheem. The youngster has copped a lot of criticism in recent weeks – rightly so in many cases – but he was excellent today, more than matching teammates Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana, who were equally excellent. He caused the Chelsea defence no end of problems with his pace and direct running, powering through their back four on more than one occasion. People forget that he’s still only 20, this kid is going to be special!
4) Dejan Lovren has remembered how to play football
Where has this Dejan Lovren been all season? Someone needs to tell him that our campaign didn’t start in mid-April! Jokes aside, he’s been excellent for the last few weeks – conceivably because he realised that his chances were running out at Anfield. If the £20m-man can keep this going then there’s going to be real competition for places in our back four next season, with Mamadou Sakho tasked with dislodging one of Lovren and Martin Skrtel.
3) Mario Balotelli’s Liverpool career is over
The Italian didn’t even make the squad today, despite recovering from the foot injury that ruled him out of our win over Queens Park Rangers. Instead, Rodgers went for 18-year-old Jerome Sinclair, who was handed his Premier League debut as a second-half substitute. In all fairness, the youngster has scored 23 goals for the reserves so far this season. Who knows how many games it would take poor Mario to reach that sort of tally in a Liverpool shirt?
2) Steven Gerrard is not only a legend, he’s an absolute hero
Is it possible to love this man any more? Even putting aside his excellent performance in midfield and his thoroughly deserved equaliser, this interview alone would be enough for me to give Gerrard the Man of the Match award. Whatever you might think about him, you can’t question his love for Liverpool and his uncanny ability to say exactly the right thing at the right time. Oh, Stevie, we’re going to miss you ever so much after this!
1) The future is bright, even without Champions League football
It’s easy to feel down on ourselves at a moment like this – a top four place is, after all, pretty much beyond us. The six point gap to Manchester United, who have a far superior goal difference, is not going to be overturned. However, we were excellent today and have lots of reasons to be optimistic. We have an excellent young squad who, with a couple of striking additions, could be a real force next season. This should be a time to be optimistic, not bemoaning the fact that we’ve finish fifth – our second best finish in six years!
