As they did on St. Stephen’s Day against Manchester City, Liverpool pushed their opponents hard and had title contenders clinging on for the final few minutes at home, before eventually losing 2-1.

While Brendan Rodgers and his side can take heart from their performance, much as they will have from their defeat to Manchester City, that’s all they’ll take and dropping from 1st to 5th in the space of 3 days signifies a significant dent to both their points tally and, presumably, squad self-belief.

Today’s tilt at taking a win to redefine their image fell short in the same fashion as the trip to the Etihad. Martin Skrtel scored following goalmouth scramble in the fourth minute and the Anfield side looked worth their lead, albeit briefly.

Eden Hazard struck on seventeen minutes – a wonderful, curling shot from 20 yards out – and from then until the half-time whistle it was almost entirely Chelsea’s game. Crucially they made that dominance count when Samuel Eto’o scored a second goal in the thirty fourth minute. The Cameroon international stretched and got his foot on the end of a ball across the face of Simon Mignolet’s goal.

On balance it could be adjudged that Liverpool won the midfield battle in the second half, but failed to make it count for anything.

Luis Suarez and Raheem Sterling stretched the Chelsea defence well and the Uruguayan should have had a penalty late on when Samuel Eto’o inexplicably bundled him over in the box, when the ball was already gone.

Liverpool pushed and Chelsea were forced to defend with backs to the wall for the final few minutes, but there was nothing more to come from Liverpool.