André Villas-Boas is under increasing pressure while big-money signings are still struggling to settle at both clubs

1 André Villas-Boas is already a manager under pressure

It was arguable that, given the summer transfer outlay, Kenny Dalglish should have come into this fixture as the manager under greater scrutiny. But in ensuring he has now gone 12 matches unbeaten against Chelsea while in charge of Liverpool he left the focus fixed on André Villas-Boas. The 34-year-old has never experienced toils quite this troubling in his fledgling managerial career. Chelsea had never lost successive home league games under Roman Abramovich’s ownership, though three defeats in four league matches is squeezing confidence at the club. Of course, Villas-Boas is charged with more than short-term success. He has to rejuvenate the team while the squad continues to evolve – transfer policy is aimed at more youthful recruits these days – which can only be a long-term project. He needs time to impose his ideas and make his influence properly felt. But Chelsea are understandably terrified of ever failing to qualify for the Champions League. Those fears did for Luiz Felipe Scolari in the winter of 2009, though the Brazilian dropped only seven points in his first 12 games in charge. The Portuguese has shed twice as many in the same time.

2 The days of Chelsea’s stingy defence are long gone

To suggest Chelsea are not as watertight as they once were is hardly revelatory. The runaround Arsenal administered here this month in plundering five proved as much, as does the sorry tally of two clean sheets in the Premier League to date all term. Yet this team are contriving to concede increasingly ridiculous goals. Petr Cech’s implausible throw to Mikel John Obi just after the half‑hour provided Liverpool with their opener, Charlie Adam’s snapped tackle and Craig Bellamy’s awareness duly cutting a swath through panicked defenders. The ease with which Glen Johnson glided past Ashley Cole and Florent Malouda for the winner was ridiculous. Chelsea may be experimenting with a more attacking approach but they have conceded 17 times in 12 games this season, two more than they did in the entirety of José Mourinho’s first season at the club. And Alex, a tower of strength in the blanks achieved at Stoke City and Blackburn Rovers in two of his three appearances this season, was not even in the 18-man matchday squad here.

3 Liverpool are still a work in progress

This was a result for Dalglish to savour, a victory to make the rest of the division sit up and take real notice. Yet, as his team contemplate a nine-match unbeaten run that has put them level on points with fourth place, there will be frustration at the wastefulness that has ensured Manchester City remain so distant at the top. Had Liverpool prevailed in matches they would have expected to win – most notably at home to Swansea City, Norwich City and Sunderland, but also even against Manchester United and Stoke City in games they dominated – they would be title contenders. Their unbeaten sequence suggests consistency, though that is deceptive. They are a team capable of startling results but they remain a work in progress. Even so, under Dalglish, the future feels decidedly bright again.

4 Big money arrivals are still to settle at both clubs

The dust has settled on the frenzied transfer dealings involving these clubs on the final day of the mid-winter window in January but Liverpool and Chelsea are still waiting to see any real return on their money. Andy Carroll and Fernando Torres began this match as £85m worth of substitutes, the pair granted a combined eight minutes to impress. Throw in Jordan Henderson and Stewart Downing, who began on the visitors’ bench, and Raul Meireles among the home replacements at the start, and there are plenty of new arrivals waiting to settle. Yet it is the forwards’ toils that hog the limelight. Torres and Carroll have now contributed seven goals in 41 Premier League games between them since leaving their previous clubs. Villas-Boas had been quick to praise the Spaniard in the build-up to this contest with former employers, only to leave him out. That said much. As did the decision to introduce Daniel Sturridge at the break rather than the £50m record signing.

5 Yet there was one solid signing on deadline day

The best piece of business achieved on the eve of the closure of the January transfer window still feels as if it was Luis Suárez’s £22m signing from Ajax. The Uruguayan has concerns off the pitch, with a Football Association charge for racially abusing Patrice Evra hanging over him, but his form is impressive. He was at his best slipping Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt, such willing runners, through Chelsea’s obligatory high line in the opening period with clever reverse passes aplenty. His involvement in the rat-a-tat of passes that pre-empted Maxi Rodríguez’s goal was almost inevitable. The striker was not involved in Johnson’s winner here, but that was bizarre: he feels integral to every attack this Liverpool team muster at present.

Premier League 2011-12ChelseaLiverpoolPremier LeagueDominic Fifieldguardian.co.uk

There was too much history between José Mourinho and his old club for the last 16 tie to be settled in the first leg. Chelsea, often on the attack, would have merited a draw on a night where they endured disadvantages such as the loss of their goalkeeper Petr Cech to a freak knee injury. To the pleasure of all onlookers, strategy did not check the flow of entertainment. The opening supplied the momentum for the whole evening.

In the unlikely event that Mourinho needed to offer proof of his impact, an Internazionale side that has previously looked as if it belonged in a tier below the Premier League club moved ahead after three minutes. With Ashley Cole and Yuri Zhirkov both injured, Carlo Ancelotti had brooded over the candidates for Chelsea’s vacancy at left-back and opted for the winger Florent Malouda.

Perhaps everyone had been too preoccupied with the issue because Inter broke through on the other flank. The visitors seemed utterly unprepared as Diego Milito cut inside, went across John Terry and scored with a low shot that beat Cech too easily at the near post. A sense of self-disgust over such a lapse seemed to galvanise Chelsea for a while.

The attacks were sustained for much of the opening half hour and no one could claim that Inter had cunningly contained the danger. A crossbar had to attend to that duty when it deflected a 30-yard free-kick from Didier Drogba after 14 minutes. All the same, many in Chelsea’s ranks would know how signs of encouragement can prove false when a resilient Mourinho line-up is around.

The Portuguese seemed to have the ideas and the means to trouble Chelsea. Terry looked particularly troubled by the striker Milito. In addition, Inter have more verve this season after reinvesting the funds raised by the sale of Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Barcelona. It allowed for the introduction, to take one example, of Wesley Sneijder’s stylishness in midfield as he regained his old form at San Siro.

Inter’s advantage ought to have been doubled in the 34th minute. Walter Samuel swept a fine pass to the left and Sneijder’s low ball went towards the far post where Samuel Eto’o missed his kick embarrassingly before Terry cleared. The home side were not so constantly masterful and Chelsea could have had an invitation to level the score at the end of the first half.

The referee Manuel Mejuto González was indifferent to the appeals when it seemed that Samuel had felled Salomon Kalou inside the penalty area. Chelsea hardly required additional motivation but the incident intensified the emotions. Given the identity of the Inter manager, drama and melodrama were to be anticipated.

Mourinho is never short of a grievance and his rare imagination excels at fashioning them. Ahead of the match, Mourinho had decried Ancelotti as an establishment figure, so burnishing his self-conferred reputation as a radical. The Portuguese’s revolutionary purpose is hard to identify. You could easily mistake him for a person who craves vast wealth and attention. Picturing himself as an outsider is a self-motivational technique. He may be oblivious to the fact that he presently works for one of the grand institutions of the sport, the sole Italian club to be ever present in Serie A.

Still, it cannot be too hard to be so embedded in the establishment when a game is running according to plan, as this one was with the lead intact at half-time. For all Chelsea’s conviction, there was a suspicion that Mourinho knew how to upset Ancelotti’s defence. The Inter manager had, to a large extent, built its creator in his London days and would have forgotten nothing about his handiwork.

Not even Mourinho could have purported to have dictated the events that filled the opening phase of the second half. In the 51st minute Chelsea equalised when Mikel John Obi set Branislav Ivanovic running and his low ball was taken by Kalou and curled into the net, with the goalkeeper Júlio César seaming a little unlucky.

Inter had regained the lead within four minutes. Sneijder delivered from the lead and although Esteban Cambiasso’s first shot was blocked by Ivanovic the ball broke back to the midfielder, who finished at the second attempt.

Shortly afterwards Cech had to be replaced when he seemed to hurt his knee while taking a cross unchallenged; Henrique Hilário came on in his place. Whatever is said about the sophistication of Mourinho and Ancelotti, this was not always a night in which a masterplan was being unfurled.

The players had notions of their own and Lampard was on the verge of a goal after build-up by Drogba and Nicolas Anelka, but his drive was saved by César. This taxing match had stimulated Chelsea and paved the way for an engrossing return.

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