Liverpool 1-3 Chelsea: Eat that

Chelsea are back. Well and truly. That was the Chelsea that we all know, thank Hiddink for that. Liverpool had no clue about what hit them. That was Blitzkrieg. Chelsea were in their face.

The kop must have been shaking in their boots and must have been relieved that it’s only 1-3, but they all must know that Chelsea have slain them.

Hiddink certainly had a plan and it went just as per his script. It was clear that we wanted to score goals and we got them. At no point did we look content.

1-1 was a good score to take home but Chelsea were looking for more. 1-2 is a great score but we weren’t done. 1-3 is a sure-fire winning score but still we were looking for more goals.

If we had taken some of the easy chances it could have ended 1-6, and that’s not an exaggeration at all.

What I love about this result is that it comes after Liverpool’s results against Real Madrid, Man Utd, Aston Villa, and the last minute winner against Fulham.

They were winning really big and they had to come back down to earth. Not many people gave Chelsea a chance tonight, and we tore them to pieces.

They did the double against us in the league, when Chelsea were under Luiz Scolari. Now we’ll do the double against them in the Champions League.

I expected Liverpool to come at us and hit us hard. They even started well with another Torres goal, but Chelsea didn’t look concerned one bit.

We kept attacking them and creating quality chances. I was wondering if Drogba was drunk in the first half, he missed two sitters. That would have been criminal had we not equalised or gone on to score more.

A couple of seasons back, Chelsea produced a similar attacking performance but got only a 1-0 win at home. The wasted chances came back to haunt us. We lost the second leg 1-0 and were knocked out in the penalties. Drogba was lucky that his misses were not that costly.

Liverpool sold Riise and thought they were better off, but we brought Ivanovic. I don’t know what were the odds for Ivanovic scoring a brace in this match, but someone, somewhere, could have become a millionaire overnight.

I don’t think Ivanovic getting a brace from corners is a coincidence, there must have been some plan around that. For both the goals, you could see Ivanovic consciously moving around knowing that he would be unmarked.

I think that’s where Hiddink out thought Rafa tactically. Tactical plans are all well and good, but they would have meant nothing if Ivanovic had not made that movement and smashed those headers. Full credit to the Serbian.

For all his sins tonight, Drogba had to score. The third goal was a killer, I loved that one—it had Drogba written all over it.

Low cross from the left and you see Drogba sneaking between two defenders in a flash and burying it. It was game over then. They knew that it was all over. They could not produce good chances to save their lives while we were creating at will.

Liverpool just could not handle Chelsea tonight.

This was a great team performance. Every single player played his part.

Essien, in particular, was brilliant. Gerrard had a very quiet game, and the credit for that goes to the Ghanian. We castrated Gerrard and disconnected him and Torres, making the Spaniard run around for nothing much.

Was it really Malouda or some other player wearing a Malouda jersey? He was fantastic. His runs and play were intelligent and dangerous. His corners were more purposeful than that of Lampard’s.

Kalou was wasteful but he kept Liverpool on their toes. Ballack was very good as well.

I’m tired of praising Lampard. He had some dubious moments in defence, but in attack, he was top class.

Many say that the only negative for Chelsea was Terry’s yellow, suspending him for the next match. On second thoughts, his yellow at this stage was ideal.

We bossed the midfield. More importantly, we played as a team. There was simply no confusion about the objective and tactics.

As a team, I was incredibly pleased with the attitude, composure and maturity shown by this group. We knew how to create chances, we knew how to keep them at bay and we knew how to control the game.

I don’t think Cech was really troubled apart from a couple of long shots. This must go down as one of the best away leg performances for Chelsea in recent times.

The tie is by no means over yet, we still have 90 minutes to play. With that said, Liverpool need a 3-0 result at Stamford Bridge and that’s a result I have not seen any team obtain at Stamford Bridge in my years of watching Chelsea.

I don’t know when it was last achieved. Liverpool may draw inspiration from their 1-4 result at Old Trafford but that’s a different competition altogether. If Man Utd had started knowing that they only needed a draw, they’d have got it.

Chelsea’s task is clear and easy, any draw will do. A goal or two would put them out of sight.

Last night was one of the best Chelsea nights I’ve experienced. Big compliments to Hiddink, he’s working wonders with this team.

The very same team that was labeled as "old, tired, and past their best," has been now recognised as a Champions League favourite, and the only team that can stop Barcelona.

The spirit and attitude of the Chelsea team is back. I love their confidence, and flamboyance, bordering on arrogance.

Message to the Kop: Owned!