Football: Rush on the rebound

Liverpool. . . .2

Rush 8, Burley og 19

Chelsea. . . . .1

Burley 50

Attendance: 38,629

WITH the revival of Liverpool's boot room yet to have much effect in lifting their play above Plimsoll line level, their performance at Anfield yesterday was probably welcome. Liverpool started strongly and finished rather limply against a side ever willing to catch them neatly on the break, but their renewed invention narrowly merited the points.

For Chelsea the defeat kept alive the lingering fear of relegation from the Premiership, but at least there is a conviction in their method now, not to mention the unquantifiable fillip of their FA Cup run, which should prevent that. This has been a strange season for the London club. Their manager, Glenn Hoddle, has not been at Stamford Bridge long enough to inaugurate a boot-room philosophy, and with his touch the order of the velvet slipper may be more appropriate.

Not always able to duplicate their boss's stamp of elegance, Chelsea suffered seven consecutive defeats in the autumn, but went into yesterday's encounter with five successive victories behind them. Neither Hoddle nor his lads settled quickly. If their organisation was in order their concentration was awry.

It took only eight minutes for Liverpool to score. Mark Wright's header from Robbie Fowler's cross was parried. Ian Rush, perhaps not for the first time in his career, adeptly obliged on the rebound. The move was both pleasant and unusual for being about the only one in the match not involving Steve McManaman.

He was delightful to watch not least because he is a throwback, a dribbling winger of the old school. The centre parting only heightens the sense of the old days, but his blistering pace is thoroughly modern and he was rampant down the right flank.

The second Liverpool goal followed within 10 minutes. McManaman's cross looked extremely inviting - even for Chelsea's Craig Burley, who glanced a header into his own net. The pre-Cup run Chelsea might now have collapsed but Hoddle's charges are more resilient these days.

A minute later Burley's volley from the edge of the area forced David James to fling himself to his right. This was an exercise he was able to repeat several times as Chelsea, finding more possession in the second half, tested his diving abilities from a distance. Twice he succeeded with top-drawer efforts, but Burley's volley in the 50th minute proved beyond him.

McManaman and Liverpool reasserted themselves. The slender winger did everything but score, but it was Hoddle's Chelsea, an iron toecap in that slipper, who never gave up in search of an equaliser.