I predicted what the talk would be if either Liverpool or Chelsea won this weekend but forgot to consider the draw. Of course, if there’s a draw then the man in black has been stealing the headlines. In amongst all the controversy there have been whispers of a three-horse-race (more if you listen to the Man City hype - but I choose to ignore that for now! :D) but I can’t help but think that the reffing controversy has served to hide Liverpool’s problems.

What Rob Styles did was unforgivable and the fact he has come out and apologised doesn’t make it any easier to take. The fact is Liverpool were the better team and deserved to win. They would have won had Styles not completely lost the plot and gifted Chelsea a way back into the game. Of course they should have won it anyway.

The facts are these, Mourinho got his tactics wrong and Liverpool out played Chelsea in the first half. Out of 5 attempts on goal Liverpool hit the target 3 times and Torres showed some of why Liverpool paid so much money for him. Chelsea had failed to hit the target at all. At half time it was Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea and nobody could argue with the score. The second half started with a re-arranged Chelsea and they caused Liverpool some problems although still failing to hit the target. Liverpool had just began to get back on top in the game when Styles decided he wanted some of the limlight and awarded one of the strangest penalties we’ll see all season. When the pass was played Drogba was in an offside position. Malouda jumped into Finnan making no attempt to play the ball and stopping Finnan from interceting the pass. The ball reached Drogba making him active and the ref blew his whistle. Penalty of course! Not a free out for the offside, not a free out for the foul on Finnan but a penalty for em…because Chelsea wouldn’t be able to hit the target otherwise!

Considering how the game had been going I still felt that Liverpool would be able to get another goal and win the game if they continued as they were. Benitez had other ideas. He brought on Babel. Not a bad decision, Babel was very good off the bench against Villa and decent against Toulouse. Torres had begun to tire up front and Kuyt had been less than effective himself, although had done alot of support work for Torres. Surely Babel would play up front as Riise and Pennant were causing Chelsea’s full backs no end of problems. No, no it was Babel for Pennant.

I felt this killed Liverpool’s rhythm. Babel was off the pace of the game for some time after he came on. The other players looked to attack down the right as they had with Pennant and Babel would miss passes or play wayward ones. Then Benitez decided to mix it up again. Crouch for Riise! Babel went left and Kuyt went right! That was the end of any right-wing option. Babel settled a bit more when he went out left and was unlucky not to win the game himself. Having Babel and Kuyt on the wings didn’t help Crouch get into the game either!

Strange substitutions and team selections like this have blighted Liverpool throughout Benitez’s reign. All the talk is about Styles. His phantom penalty and his torrets yellow cards. I say that Liverpool were good enough to beat Chelsea yesterday and they were good enough to beat Styles too! Benitez did very well to set out his team as he did but for some reason he wasn’t so good when it came to the subs. Having watched Man United loose to Man City and then the Liverpool Chelsea game I am convinced that Liverpool are good enough to win the title this season. The only thing that can stop them now are the crazy subs.