Crikey O' Riley

This afternoon Chelsea met Liverpool at Anfield in an encounter that many believed would go some way to determine who Manchester United's main contenders for the Premier League title would be.

Having been absolutely outplayed by United when Chelsea went to Old Trafford a couple of weeks ago they would have been keen to set their stall out early and frustrate a Liverpool side that have drawn 5 of their twelve home games this season.

It was by far a vintage Chelsea performance but then consistency has eluded them, somewhat, this season and, without causing their opponents too many problems, were quite comfortable in frustrating Liverpool who, by all accounts, were all over the visitors.

Chelsea created few chances but, with Didier Drogba and Deco among the substitutes, they might have considered a late assault if the scores had remained level. But what Chelsea hadn't counted on was the referee, Mike Riley, sending off Frank Lampard for a tackle he couldn't have been any closer to unless he was on the receiving end of it - Lampard becoming the 4th player in 16 Premier League games to be shown a red card by Riley.

The sending off was farcical and Lampard can count himself extremely unlucky to have been given his marching orders for a tackle that replays showed (not that anyone needed one) him clearly winning the ball in a challenge with Xabi Alonso, the Liverpool midfielder.

This was a match that Chelsea manager, Luiz Felipe Scolari, billed as a 'make or break' game for his side's title chances and he was understandably frustrated at a refereeing decision that ultimately allowed Liverpool to benefit from their numerical advantage - eventually running out 2-0 winners thanks to Fernando Torres' late brace, the first of which was scored in the 89th minute.

Torres' second was scored a minute later with Ashley Cole, the Chelsea left-back, caught in possession by Yossi Benayoun who then squared the ball for Torres to score one of the easiest goals he is ever likely to score. But by this stage the result was a formality, the damage had already been done and as Scolari said in his post-match comments: "When he (Lampard) was sent off it changed the game for us one million percent. We lost the middle and did not have the ball. They created more chances and had more possession. And they were able to score the goals after that decision."

What makes Mr Riley's performance even more worrying was the fact he overlooked a blatant red card offence when Jose Bosingwa, the Chelsea right-back, put his boot into the back of Benayoun and then pushed him over. The FA will surely exercise retrospective action if the incident doesn't appear in the referee's match report.

In truth, Liverpool did dominate a Chelsea side that has looked out of sorts for too long and they threw caution to the wind after Lampard's sending off which is what they didn't do against Arsenal back in December. Yet if they are to prove that they are improving their weaknesses they must go to Portsmouth on Saturday knowing that anything less than 3 points is a failure - which has been something of an achilles heel in recent seasons.