All eyes were on Stamford Bridge Tuesday night as Liverpool took on Chelsea in the F.A Cup 5th round.
Following Liverpool’s first league defeat of the season, a 3 – 0 humbling against Watford, it was a tough tie in which to respond.
Chelsea won 2 -0 on a night when suddenly, Liverpool’s sheen of invincibility wore off and the team looked human.
On a sporting level, Liverpool has been almost boring for the past 18 months. They have utterly bulldozed all before them, and are the Premier League champions elect.
On a psychological level, the past few weeks have been fascinating. Liverpool’s first defeat this season, 1 – 0 away to Atletico Madrid in the Champions League showed a chink in their armor.
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Any team can lose away to Atletico, but the Liverpool players were clearly affected by it. While they returned to winning ways in the league, they weren’t blowing teams away. They were grinding it out.
Now, they have been beaten three times this year. A potential unbeaten treble season has been reduced to the domestic title. While the Reds regularly say that they aren’t bothered about records and accolades, they must still be aware of this.
If they go out of the Champions League, the remainder of their season will become some sort of bizarre procession towards a title that has been theirs since October.
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Not that they will care in the end. It will be Liverpool’s first title in 30 years and a remarkable accomplishment. However, given how dominant they have been, they had the chance to win even more.
Atletico travel to Anfield for their second leg this day next week. They are 1/2 to win and progress to the next round, and they are the third favourites at 6/1 to retain their Champions League title.
