Relive the 1-1 draw between Chelsea and Liverpool in the Premier League that saw the visitors' top-four hopes come to an end, with Sports Mole's live text coverage.
2
Liverpool's faint hopes of retaining their place in the Champions League all but came to an end this afternoon as they failed to beat recently-crowned Premier League champions Chelsea.
The Reds had to become the first team to win at Stamford Bridge in the league this season if they were to keep their top-four hopes alive, but they were forced to settle for a point as the Blues preserved their unbeaten record.
John Terry headed the hosts in front inside five minutes and it was opposing captain Steven Gerrard who earned Liverpool a draw on his last appearance in West London.
Read Sports Mole's minute-by-minute updates below to see how the action unfolded.
Afternoon all! The pick of the games in the Premier League this weekend takes place at Stamford Bridge as newly-crowned champions Chelsea host Liverpool. We've got a bumper 90 minutes of build-up, but before we get into the nitty-gritty...
UPDATE: Let's bring you an update from the day's earlier kickoff between Manchester City and Queens Park Rangers. QPR have to win to avoid relegation today, but it's not looking good as they trail 2-0 with the second half just kicking off. Read about the first period with our half-time report.
Right, enough of that. Let's look ahead to our feature game here and what a tasty tussle it is. Chelsea and Liverpool's bitterness towards one another has grown and grown over the last 10 years, with several important meetings both in the league and cups.
Liverpool were oh so close to winning the league last season, but this term they've been off the impressive pace set by Chelsea for much of the season. Jose Mourinho's Blues wrapped up the title last weekend with a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. It is their fourth top-flight crown in 10 years and the third under Mr Mourinho.
STAT: Having clinched the title, we now know that on the final day of the 2014-15 PL season, Chelsea will have led the table for 274 days of the season – a Premier League record.
Chelsea are an impressive 15 league games unbeaten (winning 11) since their New Year's Day defeat at White Hart Lane to Tottenham Hotspur. Mourinho sang the praises of his players for their response to that defeat in his press conference on Friday:
"The key moment was the stability after losing at Spurs, everybody stuck together and we were very calm," the Portuguese coach said. "What pleases me is winning the title, the way we did it and the consistency we've shown in difficult periods."
You'll see the combative midfield duo of Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic in the below vine, but all eyes today will be on 19-year-old Chelsea striker Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who will make his first start for the Blues. Mourinho outlined so in his programme notes. Full team news will be with us in about 10 minutes.
A bit more on Loftus-Cheek - he is a 19-year-old English striker who made his Premier League debut late on from the bench against Manchester City back in January. He also made one substitute appearance in the Champions League group stages earlier this term. Internationally, he has a fine record at Under-19 level, but is yet to break into the Under-21 set-up.
If you head to our Chelsea vs. Liverpool game hub you'll find our preview and plenty of build-up articles on the upcoming match in West London. With Chelsea having won the title, they will be given a guard of honour by their opponents and there's been plenty of talk about that. Mourinho and his captain John Terry have both suggested that they'd rather not have it, while Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson believes that it will motivate the visitors.
UPDATE: QPR are going down in flames as they concede two quick goals to fall 5-0 down to Man City. Aguero scored from the spot for his hat-trick and 25th league goal of the season, while James Milner added the fifth. Closing 20 minutes live here.
How will Steven Gerrard feel when he is applauding Chelsea onto the field? The long-standing Liverpool captain could have potentially joined Chelsea earlier in his career, with Mourinho saying he tried to sign the former England captain three times. In what is his last trip to Stamford Bridge before a move to MLS, will Gerrard feel a little regret?
TEAM NEWS! Both lineups are just reaching us and, as expected, Loftus-Cheek makes his full Chelsea debut. For the visitors, there's a rare start for Rickie Lambert. Starting XIs coming right up...
Mourinho makes a total of five changes from the narrow win over Palace. Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta, Nemanja Matic, Juan Cuadrado Didier Drogba drop out, with Kurt Zouma, Filipe Luis, John Obi Mikel, Loic Remy and Loftus-Cheek coming in.
It's no surprise to see so many changes in the hosts' lineup. Mourinho is free to experiment and it's a good opportunity for the likes of Loftus-Cheek to impress against tough opposition.
Brendan Rodgers names an unchanged Liverpool XI from the 2-1 win over QPR last weekend. Jordon Ibe is perhaps the most surprising omission as Lambert continues up front.
STALWART: Chelsea captain John Terry is the only Blue to play every minute of their league campaign this term (3150) and he again starts today. PFA Player of the Year Eden Hazard has also started every league game for the champions.
Staff Reporter Barney Corkhill on that team news: "Chelsea were always expected to make a number of changes this afternoon, and that could play into Liverpool's hands. How Loftus-Cheek copes with the skill of Coutinho and the experience of Gerrard could be key, and the visitors will be looking at the weakened midfield as an area they may be able to dominate today. Chelsea always have Hazard to cause problems going forward, though."
REFEREE WATCH: The man in charge today is Andre Marriner, who last weekend gave out seven yellow cards in Man City's 1-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur. He last refereed Chelsea at Loftus Road when they won 1-0 against QPR last month, while his last Liverpool game was their 0-0 draw with Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup.
Click here to see the latest Premier League table after that big win for City, who are 10 points behind Chelsea in second. Liverpool are seven points behind Manchester United in fourth and must win today if they are to keep alive their hopes of sneaking into the Champions League places.
Liverpool will have been hoping that bitter rivals United would have lost yesterday, but they came through 2-1 at Palace. See pictures from all of yesterday's action by following us on Instagram - @sportsmole.
However, the Mourinho factor has played its part in games involving these two in the last decade. The Portuguese coach has won eight and lost just one of 10 Premier League matches as a coach against Liverpool. In the 11 league meetings between his two spells in charge, Liverpool won six and lost just two matches against the Blues.
Liverpool are without a win in three Premier League away games, but they have kept seven clean sheets in their last nine league matches on the road. In Simon Mignolet, they have the goalkeeper with the most clean sheets this season (13) - only Southampton's Fraser Forster (13) has kept as many.
This is the fourth meeting between the Blues and Reds this season. In the reverse league fixture, Chelsea won at Anfield thanks to Diego Costa's second-half strike, while in the League Cup semi-finals Chelsea also came out on top over two legs thanks to a Branislav Ivanovic winner in extra time.
Staff Reporter Barney Corkhill: "Chelsea have a great record against Liverpool in the league under Mourinho, and an equally impressive one at Stamford Bridge. However, it is only natural that their intensity may be a little off this afternoon having clinched the title last week. Mourinho will no doubt want to beat Liverpool, but the visitors need the result more if they are to keep their Champions League hopes alive. They more than held their own in the two League Cup meetings earlier this season, and I can see them matching Chelsea again today. I'm going for a 1-1 draw."
The two teams are lining up in the tunnel. Terry and Gerrard exchange pleasantries and soon we'll have the guard of honour for the champions as they enter the field via a blue carpet.
BOOKING! That didn't take long! Early bite to the game as Fabregas is booked by Marriner for a nasty tackle on Sterling. The England international stays down and might not be able to continue.
Early breakthrough for the champions and it's captain Terry who gets up well to meet Fabregas's outswinging corner from the right. His eighth goal in all competitions this season.
With that goal, Terry becomes the highest-scoring defender in Premier League history with 39 goals in the competition. What a player he's been for the Blues.
Liverpool look for a quick response through Coutinho, but the Brazilian's effort is deflected wide after he did well to work a yard of space about 20 yards out.
Listed as an attacker, Loftus-Cheek is in fact playing a holding role alongside Mikel in the Chelsea midfield. He's looked fairly composed so far and made some crunching tackles already.
It was Fabregas's corner that Terry headed home, making it 18 assists for the former this term. That's more than he's ever managed in a Premier League season and since the start of last season in La Liga, he has more assists (31) than anyone else in Europe's top five leagues. The next-best is former teammate Lionel Messi on 29.
SIDE-NETTING! It's not often you see Ivanovic look silly, but he just let Johnson go past him far too easily down the Liverpool left. The England full-back surged towards goal and tried to beat Courtois at his near post, but could only find the side-netting.
Coutinho lets fly again and this time manages to get it on target. It's straigh at Courtois, though, and the big Belgian makes a comfortable save with his feet.
Sterling is next to try his luck for Liverpool as he drags his shot wide from 20 yards. Since the early goal, Liverpool have had the better of the play, but Chelsea will be happy for them to continue taking speculative efforts from long range.
John Terry has now scored more Premier League goals this season (5) than any Liverpool striker has managed. pic.twitter.com/rDOCacs2Js
— Squawka Football (@Squawka) May 10, 2015
Sterling is furious with referee Marriner as he feels that he was tugged over by Fabregas, who has been booked remember. That sort of offence often results in a booking, but Fabregas has got away with it.
Staff Reporter Barney Corkhill on an end-to-end start: "Any thoughts that Chelsea could take things easy in this match were quickly put to bed in that opening five minutes. Liverpool have responded well to that early setback, however, and have settled into the match now. This certainly doesn't feel like an end-of-season game!"
BOOKING! Lallana is the first Liverpool player to be cautioned after a lunge on Ivanovic. Some might argue it was a fair tackle, but it was a little from behind and the way Ivanovic, in trademark fashion, threw himself and recoiled gave Marriner little choice but to produce a yellow card.
Courtois makes a good stop to keep out Lambert, but the former Southampton man was just offside anyway. Liverpool have more than matched Chelsea since conceding, but it will be extremely difficult for them to win from here. Chelsea have only conceded more than one once at home in the league this season and that day in September they beat Swansea City 4-2.
Fabregas gets to the byline left of the goal, but his cutback somehow misses everyone in the middle. Moments later Hazard feels that he should have won a corner, but Marriner points for a goal kick.
SHOT! With Loftus-Cheek playing in a deeper role, Fabregas is enjoying being able to get forward more. He again causes Liverpool problems by surging down the right and unleashing a powerful drive from a tight angle that Mignolet just about manages to keep out.
BOOKING! Another Liverpool yellow card and this one is a little harsh. Lambert was chasing a long ball and appeared to slip a little to collide with Courtois just as the ball was running out of play. Marriner didn't like it and got out his notepad for the fourth time in under half an hour.
Dear oh dear! Mignolet has had a couple of dodgy moments already and he's just gifted Chelsea a corner by inadvertently punching Fabregas's inswinging delivery behind him, instead of away from harm.
Liverpool's strikers have struggled all season long and one of those is Daniel Sturridge, who has just Instagrammed the below picture saying that he is watching the match while resting his injured hip in bed.
CHELSEA SUB: A blow for the home side as young defender Zouma, given his chance in the starting lineup today, is forced off with an injury and replaced by Gary Cahill.
Warm applause for Loftus-Cheek as he does well to not be beaten by Coutinho's drop of the shoulder in the middle of the park. He's certainly not been fazed by the big occasion of his full debut so far.
Mignolet again leaves his six-yard box to punch away a Fabregas delivery. Again it's far from convincing, but he gets enough height on it for it to reach the edge of the area and Liverpool win a free kick to ease the pressure.
Odd scenes in the stadium as injured Chelsea striker Costa appears to be asked to stop sitting with supporters as he is attracting too much attention. He'll be escorted down back to his seat behind the dugout.
The visitors level it up just before half time as Gerrard guides home a simple back-post header from the resulting free kick. He outwitted his marker and was left all alone at the back post to nod home for just his second ever goal against Chelsea.
So both former England captains have scored with headers from set pieces as the fourth official indicates that there will be two minutes of added time at the end of the first half.
One apiece between Chelsea and Liverpool and Terry and Gerrard then. Chelsea got off to a flying start, but Liverpool have been in the game since and got their equaliser just before the break.
With Terry and Gerrard on the scoresheet, a couple of milestones were passed. Terry became the all-time top goalscoring defender in the Premier League with 39 goals, while Gerrard is now Liverpool's second-highest Premier League goalscorer with 119, overtaking Michael Owen (118) and nine short of Robbie Fowler (128).
Liverpool skipper Gerrard is also the Reds' top scorer in the league this season with eight goals. His final campaign has certainly not been the happiest, but he's still doing the business in front of goal.
The two goals were set up by two of the Premier League's best assisters. Since the start of last season, Jordan Henderson has more assists (16) than any other English player, while Fabregas, in just one season, has more assists that any other player (18). Quite a remarkable season by the former Barcelona and Arsenal man.
The two sides are emerging from the tunnel for the second half. It doesn't look like either Mourinho or Rodgers has made a change. Remember, the Blues have already been forced into one sub, with Zouma being replaced by Cahill.
Just seen a great stat from the first half - debutant Loftus-Cheek completed all 23 of his passes. An impressive, composed performance so far on his full Blues bow.
SIDE-NETTING! Chance for Liverpool to take the lead inside four minutes at the start of the second half as Sterling does well to get away from Luis in the box before cutting back to Coutinho, whose first-time strike is well-hit but the wrong side of the post as the side-netting ripples.
I said before kickoff that Marriner had shown seven yellow cards in last week's match between Spurs and Man City and we're on course for that sort of total again after five in the first half. Those booked were Fabregas and Ivanovic for Chelsea and Skrtel, Lallana and Lambert for Liverpool.
Fair play to Liverpool, they've come out all guns blazing at the start of the second period. Lallana looks especially bright and if it keeps going in this vein, Chelsea might lose their first home league game of the season.
Great defending by Skrtel as he slides in to block Willian's shot out for a corner. The Brazilian was in plenty of space on the right of the penalty area, but took a poor first touch to allow Skrtel to get in the way of his effort.
Staff Reporter Barney Corkhill: "This has been a really bright start to the second half for Liverpool, but Chelsea are still looking dangerous on the break. The Reds will be desperate to make the most of this spell and get a goal as we all know how good Mourinho is at grinding out results even when his side are on the back foot. The final ball is just lacking for the visitors at the moment, though."
SHOT! I said that Lallana was looking lively and he's just gone close with a deflected shot that looped out for a corner. Chelsea about to make their second change...
CHELSEA SUB: Loftus-Cheek's full debut comes to an end after an hour as he is replaced by Matic. A really impressive outing from the 19-year-old, who was certainly not overawed in the middle of the park.
Half-chance at the back post for Skrtel as he tries to find the target with a high bouncing ball. It was a difficult opportunity for someone like Aguero or Messi, so no surprise to see Skrtel blaze into Row Z.
At half time Loftus-Cheek had made all 23 of his passes and he left the field having kept that 100% pass-completion rate intact (27/27). Fuss-free and composed.
We're still yet to have a shot on target in the second half, but Liverpool have looked like the side more likely to score the game's third goal. Given Chelsea's unbeaten home record this season, it wouldn't be that surprising to see them grow in stature and nick a late winner.
LIVERPOOL SUB: Bold decision by Rodgers as he throws on 18-year-old Jerome Sinclair for his Premier League debut. He replaces the ineffective Lambert in attack.
LIVERPOOL SUB: Another youngster comes on for Liverpool, with Ibe taking Lallana's place. Quite a surprising sub, that, because Lallana had been bright all second half.
CHANCE! Decent chance for Chelsea to retake the lead as Fabregas bursts forward and drops his shoulder to create space for a left-footed shot that he drills straight at Mignolet.
Fabregas again goes close as the ball breaks his way in the area before his low shot is excellently blocked by Skrtel, who's had a great second half. This latest block has left him stricken on the turf and might have just twisted his knee.
Because he received treatment on the pitch, Skrtel can't help out at the resulting corner but his absence isn't felt as the Reds hack it clear through Henderson. About 15 minutes in total remaining at Stamford Bridge.
LIVERPOOL SUB: Chelsea fans have been waving the below signs at Liverpool captain Gerrard and he won't have to endure the taunts any more as Rodgers takes him off for Lucas Leiva. Chelsea manager Mourinho and many other people around the stadium applaud the Reds captain off on what is his last appearance at Stamford Bridge.
SAVE! Liverpool almost score a bizarre goal as Sterling's attempted cutback ricochets off both Ivanovic and Cahill to divert it towards goal. It looks like it was sneaking inside the near post and Courtois does well to react and palm it away.
Staff Reporter Barney Corkhill: "Liverpool have played well in this second half, but they simply haven't done enough in the final third yet. They have less than 10 minutes to keep their slim Champions League hopes alive now, and Rodgers will have to throw caution to the wind if things don't change in the next couple. On a side note, it was good to see the majority of those inside Stamford Bridge giving Gerrard a standing ovation when he went off."
As Barney mentions below, Liverpool will see their top-four hopes extinguised if they fail to find a late winner here. A draw will also guarantee Arsenal's place in the Champions League yet again.
CLOSE! Coutinho's snapshot from 22 yards is deflected and wrongfoots Courtois. It seemed, for a brief moment, that the ball would trickle over the line, but all the pace was taken off it and Courtois was able to adjust and clutch the ball to his chest.
SHOT! Liverpool looking the more likely to nick a late winner as Henderson's volley from the edge of the area bobbles wide. Replays show that Terry got a crucial deflection, but it wasn't spotted by the officials. Goal kick.
Brilliant skill by Ibe to get away from Luis and Willian, but next up on the gauntlet to goal is Terry, who watches the ball and makes a fine tackle in the area.
Newly-crowned Premier League champions Chelsea draw 1-1 at home to Liverpool to preserve their unbeaten home reocrd in the league. The two captains scored the goals, with Gerrard cancelling out Terry's early opener.
For Liverpool, their hopes of retaining their place in the Champions League come to an end as they are now six points behind Man United and have a much lower goal difference.
Click here to see the latest Premier League table after today's two games. Champions Chelsea are 11 points clear at the top, while fifth-placed Liverpool are almost certain to finish in the Europa League places as they are five points clear of seventh-placed Southampton with just two games of the season remaining.
Aaaaaaaaanyway, that's us done on this commentary. Thanks for joining SM this afternoon. Look out for reaction aplenty from Stamford Bridge as well as match analysis and player ratings to come in the next hour or so. From myself and Barney, it's good evening! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
ID:222023: cacheID:222023:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:61367:No Data Analysis info