Owen keeps Liverpool on Arsenal's heels

Liverpool 1 Chelsea

For some fixtures the pattern remains the same, only the years change. Yesterday, Sunderland, who last season had been two down inside four minutes, had capitulated after 10 at Highbury, while at Anfield, men in blue shirts again sank to the grass weighed down with despair after once more losing to Liverpool with a goal in the last minute.

Last season, Chelsea were undone by Vladimir Smicer; now it was a combination of Emile Heskey and Michael Owen. The former, put through by a marvellous pass from Salif Diao, drove his shot against the post and the ball rolled out gently and invitingly back to Michael Owen, who from no more than a yard out clipped it into an utterly unguarded net with 46 seconds of the match remaining.

Significantly, it was his only shot of an afternoon which confirmed Chelsea's third successive defeat, something which they had never previously experienced under Claudio Ranieri. Otherwise, he had contributed a cross which Carlo Cudicini made a hash of but which Milan Baros was unable to convert.

Liverpool deserved their victory which kept them in touching distance of Arsenal by virtue of a dramatically improved second-half performance which had seen Steven Gerrard hit the crossbar and Baros, who troubled Marcel Desailly with his pace, squander one achingly obvious chance.

But, hampered by the loss of Stephane Henchoz to a calf injury that will keep him out for six weeks, this was not the fluid, attacking Liverpool Gérard Houllier has promised and frequently delivered this season. As the crowds drifted off, the Tannoys played Gareth Gates and Will Young crooning the Beatles' "Long And Winding Road" and the home team's display echoed this. It was plastic and not the real Liverpool.

However, after what could be counted Liverpool's first victory of the season over one of the Premiership's main players, it meant they had made their best start since Kenny Dalglish's final campaign. Houllier, approaching the first anniversary of his almost fatal collapse at Anfield, and planning to "celebrate it" with a week off, would appreciate that statistic.

Phil Thompson was alongside Dalglish in the dug-out in that fateful season of 1990-91, which finished with Arsenal cantering to the title, and Liverpool's assistant manager admitted that his side "did not have their usual potency", but went on to ask questions of how effective Chelsea actually were.

"It was an interesting game and it was not our most fluid display," he said. "But there was desire among the players especially not to lose a goal. If you analyse what chances Chelsea created, it was minimal. They had a lot of the ball but it was in the middle and in their own third."

Chelsea's usual trick is to be humiliated in the darker corners of European football and then respond with a display of force and purpose in one of the Premiership's great arenas. Last year's failure in Tel Aviv sparked a recovery, the centrepiece of which was a 3-0 defeat of Manchester United. Yesterday, in the wake of an inept display in Stavanger, they were muscular, determined and generally succeeded in smothering Houllier's reformed midfield which had Bruno Cheyrou playing behind Owen and Heskey.

Houllier sees signs of Zinedine Zidane in Cheyrou's play, although yesterday, the only real resemblance was facial – there was a little turn and shot early in the second half but it was well blocked by his brother-in-law, Emmanuel Petit. With 20 minutes remaining the Liverpool manager did something the Real coach Vicente del Bosque would never do to Zidane. He took him off.

Since there were only two English-born players in Ranieri's starting line-up, the announcement of Sven Goran Eriksson's squad to begin the European Championship campaign would hardly have been a burning issue on the Chelsea bus. However, should Frank Lampard want a regular international role as a goalscoring midfielder, he would have to finish better than the tame header which greeted Jesper Gronkjaer's cross. Lampard, unmarked and a few yards out, ought to have scored; instead it bounced tamely past Jerzy Dudek's post.

Their only other chance came from a corner as William Gallas, of all people, met Sami Hyypia's headed clearance with a fierce shot which flew perhaps a yard over the crossbar. It was not a bad afternoon for centre-halves who fancy themselves as forwards. Later, Hyypia, in a very similar move, seized on Desailly's clearance and forced Cudicini to fling his volley over the bar and into the Kop.

"Luck forgot us in the last three games," complained Ranieri, voicing a frequent lament from Chelsea managers at Anfield. "But that's football. It's fantastic but also cruel."

Ranieri was pleased nonetheless that Chelsea proved they can bounce back from disappointment. "I asked my players and got a good reaction after what happened in Europe. I think Chelsea is alive, which is important," he said.

Only once since the death of King George V has a Chelsea manager celebrated a victory here and that came courtesy of goals from two men who would be unlikely to find a place at the modern Stamford Bridge, Dennis Wise and Vinnie Jones.

Goal: Owen 1-0 (90)

Liverpool (4-3-1-2): Dudek 6; Carragher 7, Henchoz 5 (Traore 6, 40), Hyypia 7, Riise 6; Gerrard 7, Hamann 7, Murphy 5 (Diao 74); Cheyrou 4 (Baros 71); Heskey 5, Owen 6. Substitutes not used: Diouf, Kirkland (gk).

Chelsea (4-4-2): Cudicini 6; Melchiot 6, Gallas 7, Desailly 6, Le Saux 7; Gronkjaer 6, Lampard 5, Petit 5, Stanic 4 (Morris h-t 5); Hasselbaink 4 (Gudjohnsen 6, h-t), Zola 6. Substitutes not used: Zenden, Terry, De Goey (gk).

Referee: G Barber (Tring) 6.

Booked: Stanic, Gronkjaer (Chelsea).

Man of the match: Hyypia.

Attendance: 43,856.