06/10/2002  Liverpool 1 Chelsea 0
 
Michael Owen's late, late show rescued Liverpool and kept them on the heels of the champions.

As the clock ticked towards what looked like a deserved point for Chelsea, it was also beginning to look like Arsenal were going to steal a four-point lead at the top of the Premiership table.

The Gunners had put away Sunderland in regulation style before Liverpool had even set foot on Anfield.

This was anything but a vintage Liverpool display. They were slow of mind and body, failing to unpick a solid Chelsea rearguard superbly marshalled by Marcel Desailly.

And if the Londoners were looking to prove themselves again after their UEFA Cup surrender against Viking Stavanger in midweek, they were doing a pretty good job until Owen struck in the last minute.

Everything else had failed for Liverpool - but substitute Salif Diao fed Emile Heskey, who surged into the box and forced his shot past the diving Carlo Cudicini.

It bounced agonisingly back off the post only for Owen, who had been kept so quiet all afternoon, to arrive and tap the ball home.

Chelsea did not deserve defeat, and must have recalled how they also lost in the last seconds to a Vladimir Smicer goal in this fixture last term.

Liverpool had fielded an unchanged side from that which mauled Spartak Moscow in midweek, while Chelsea were able to restore their defence with the return of Desailly, Mario Melchiot and Graeme Le Saux.

The Anfield side should have been on a high after eight goals in their last two games, but they were strangely subdued as Chelsea showed a competitive, organised edge so sadly missing in their humiliation in Norway.

Chelsea had an assured look, keeping possession and with Desailly looking his old composed, arrogant self. Gianfranco Zola and Frank Lampard passed the ball around, and much of the early stages were spent in Liverpool's half.

Half chances came and went. Jesper Gronkjaer's cross-shot from the right, Zola's free-kick which sailed wide, plus a 25-yard shot lashed over by William Gallas and Lampard's missed header from from eight yards, saw Chelsea in the driving seat.

Liverpool's response failed to unhinge the visitors. The hosts were penned in and it was clear the accusations levelled against Chelsea's highly-paid players in recent days had had a galvanising effect.

The home side's first effort came after 30 minutes when John Arne Riise sent a header wide from Danny Murphy's corner.

Liverpool came alive when Steven Gerrard sprinted away from Desailly and fired over a cross which was hacked behind, and then when the corner was only half cleared to Sami Hyypia, he lashed in a dipping 30-yard shot which Cudicini diverted over.

Stephane Henchoz had a recurrence of his hamstring injury after 38 minutes and Djimi Traore came on as substitute.

Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had been virtually unnoticed in the first half and his poor season grew worse when he was taken off at the break to be replaced by Eidur Gudjohnsen.

For a while Liverpool looked to be finding their sharpness, Bruno Cheyrou seeing a close-range shot blocked by Emmanuel Petit before Gerrard hit the woodwork.

That chance came after 52 minutes, Dietmar Hamann's free-kick blocked by the wall and the ball bouncing out to Gerrard who lashed a 30-yard shot which beat Cudicini and smacked against the bar.

But Liverpool's pressure did not last. Chelsea's defensive stranglehold on Owen continued and the speed of thought needed to break down an increasingly assured defence was absent from the hosts' play.

Chelsea were happy to sit deep and wait for the through-balls to pick them off.

After 69 minutes Liverpool made a long awaited change, bringing on Baros in place of the ineffective Cheyrou, who had been marked out of the game by his countryman Petit.

Heskey went to the left of midfield and Baros joined Owen in attack.

It produced instant pace into the proceedings and Baros' first involvement was a pacy run across midfield, a ball out to Owen and then his arrival in the box to force Cudicini to punch away under intense pressure.

Baros then surged in from the right but somehow lifted a close-range drive over the bar when he had done all the hard stuff in beating Desailly.

Then came the thrilling finale and Owen's fifth goal of the season, his first from open play at Anfield this season.