Lampard's red card gives Liverpool green light for victory.

(From Guardian Unlimited)

Ambition and desperation are intertwined for Liverpool. While they deserved the win that puts them two points behind Manchester United, who have a game in hand, Rafael Benitez's team thrived on the luck of a mistake by the referee, Mike Riley. Fernando Torres broke the deadlock in the 88th minute, with the first of his goals, but Chelsea had lacked Frank Lampard for the last half-hour following a red card.

With his departure Chelsea had to make increasingly desperate blocks to keep Liverpool at bay. Lampard was sent off despite making contact with the ball before the collision with Xabi Alonso. Even if the official could argue that the midfielder's studs were raised, he had done no more than speak to Steven Gerrard for a more reckless foul on Mikel John Obi shortly before. Alonso had been the serious offender in the incident with Lampard but this was a jumble of a match that seemed too much for the officials. Shortly after Liverpool's opener, the Chelsea full-back Jose Bosingwa put his boot into the back of Yossi Benayoun without receiving any punishment.

It was a mostly inept occasion and the efficiency at the heart of the opener hardly belonged here. The left-back Fabio Aur'lio flighted the ball to the near post and Torres' header glanced it into the far corner of the net. The Spain centre-forward struck again in stoppage time when a stretching challenge by Ashley Cole accidentally laid the ball into his path.

Liverpool will be heartened by a first League win since December 28. Conversely Chelsea have cause for introspection. Luiz Felipe Scolari said that his side had been inferior all afternoon. Maybe that could have been rectified if Lampard had been around until the close but Chelsea have extracted one point from five League meetings in this campaign with United, Chelsea and Arsenal.

While there continue to be several formidable footballers on the books at Stamford Bridge, Scolari suffers from an unbalanced squad. Resources in attack are meagre. Nicolas Anelka hardly registered and the substitute Didier Drogba does not appear fully engaged in the cause. Creativity has been restricted not only by Joe Cole's injury but also because of the failure of Florent Malouda and Deco.

Liverpool, by comparison, were probably feeling good about themselves last night. It will have slipped their minds that this was an occasion of frenetic scuffling. The omission from the squad of Robbie Keane, for the second time in three games, will provoke gossip but it may have been in the Irishman's interests to duck this. No one's standing was ...