This one could prove disastrous for Blues, however, who threw away a 2-0 lead against a weakened Liverpool side and hence missed a glorious opportunity to get themselves out of the relegation zone and leave their rivals deep in it. As it is, Blues now go to Fulham next week facing the prospect of a massive match when Blues are displaying some abysmal away form. Blues could be down before Blackburn Rovers even get to St Andrews for the final game of the season.
Alex McLeish made three changes to the team trounced by Villa. On the flanks, Olivier Kapo and Seb Larsson returned and replaced Gary McSheffrey and Cameron Jerome respectively, whilst up front, Mikael Forssell came back into the side at the expense of Mauro Zarate. Liverpool did indeed rest the likes of Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Dirk Kuyt, Ryan Babel and Jamie Carragher, but their "Reserves" were still a formidable side - Pepe Reina in goal, Champions League winning full-backs in Steve Finnan and John Arne Riise, one of the finest centre halves in Premier League history in Sami Hyypia, another outstanding centre half at the other end of his career in Martin Skrtel, a Brazilian international (God knows how, mind) in Lucas in midfield, with Jermaine Pennant and Yossi Benayoun on the flanks and experienced international forwards in Peter Crouch and Andriy Voronin. Oh, and some number 47 called Damien Plessis. It was a decent side.
Blues didn't start well and looked nervous, as they probably were. You'd have wanted them to get at Liverpool from the off, but they didn't. Liverpool looked more comfortable in possession, but didn't look remotely dangerous themselves. It was a pretty poor first half, in all honesty, but it was Blues who made the breakthrough as a Larsson cross somehow found its way through to Forssell who took his time (too much time, it initially looked) and finished well past an advancing Reina. That genuinely was about it for the first half. Blues led but had done very little to impose themselves on the game, and Liverpool had looked like they had their minds elsewhere (ie. Stamford Bridge).
The second half started in much the same fashion, and it continued to be blatantly apparent that Blues' tactic of direct balls for James McFadden and Forssell wasn't working. Skrtel and Hyypia are too good for that. As such, Blues could barely retain possession and Liverpool grew into the game.
It was against the run of play that Blues went 2-0 up, courtesy of another superb Larsson free-kick (and another "Jaidi Jive"). It was from some distance, and you did think, "No Seb, not this time", but sure enough, he finished fantastically and Blues were 2-0 up, Fulham were 2-0 down and Reading and Bolton were drawing and all was rosy.
Not for long...
Blues hadn't been very good in going 2-0 up. I know that sounds silly, but it hadn't been a good performance and the ball retention by the midfield and, in particular, the forwards was pretty shocking. It was crying out for a change, and you have to say, it was crying out for Cameron Jerome to work the Liverpool backline and run the channels, as the two slower, more static "ball into feet" forwards that Blues had on the pitch simply weren't up to the task, and Blues were generally still getting pegged back by Liverpool. It was crying out for a change. Sure enough, it was to cost Blues.
Both Liverpool's goals seem to be a blur of bad defending, pinball type football and all the rest to me. I haven't seen any highlights or anything (too depressed) so can't describe them in any great detail except to say that both appeared very, very preventable. I've said quite a few times this season that the difference from two seasons ago is that this time, I don't feel that Blues deserve to get relegated - they've played some good football, have some great attacking players and score goals. That's naive on my part though, because I have to say, Derby aside, I haven't seen another team consistently defend as poorly as Blues do. It's the defence that may (an probably will) relegate Blues, and if it happens, we will deserve it. We'll deserve it for the unwaivering faith placed in Liam Ridgewell. We'll deserve it for not strengthening the defence sufficiently last summer, and then failing to rectify that in January. Bruce is to blame, McLeish is to blame, the board are to blame. It's probably going to get Blues relegated.
Ridgewell was again desperate, Stephen Kelly wasn't at his best and David Murphy was again poor - his early promise seems longer ago by the week. Radhi Jaidi was the only defender for Blues that you could say, "he did ok", whilst behind him, Maik Taylor clearly gives his defenders so little confidence, that without actually expressly making errors, you can still see and sense the total breakdown in trust and confidence.
At 2-0, with Liverpool doing ok, but not really threatening, a foolish thought entered into my head - maybe we'll get that clean sheet today? No chance! The defence is not good enough to keep a single clean sheet in the Premier League anymore, and if that's the case, whilst you've got your Kapo's and Zarate's and Larsson's and McFadden's and Forssell's, you've also got a hell of a battle on your hands to get anything out of the game.
I said to someone at half-time, "we have to make this count, as Liverpool just aren't up for it - they're just making up the numbers". Their first half performance looked like that, and they were hardly stunning in the second half. You won't get a better chance to beat them. They were good enough, however, to breach Blues' defence twice and deliver a hammer blow to their survival hopes. The fact is though, you don't have to be that good to that anymore. In a game like this, when Blues needed to be firing on all cylinders, they really didn't. Apart from the two goals, I don't think Reina made a save at all, and Blues created next to nothing. Liverpool weren't great but created much, much more, and deserved at least the point, if not more.
Blues are where they are because they deserve to be, and in two weeks time, in my mind, they'll get what they deserve - relegation.