Liverpool 2-0 Cheslea: Liverpool underline Chelsea's lack of conviction.

Dirk Kuyt took advantage of Peter Crouch's touch to put the skids under injury-hit Chelsea after three minutes. Jermaine Pennant's brilliant dipping volley effectively sealed the points for Liverpool after 17 minutes in boss Rafa Benitez's 100th league game.

This was only Mourinho's ninth defeat in 100 Premiership games in charge, but it was arguably his most significant. Middlesbrough had run riot against the champions last term, but never before has a game as key as this been surrendered so meekly. For the manager to emerge from the shambles and talk of inevitability smacked of a defeatist attitude utterly incongruous with what one has come to expect of the self-proclaimed Special One.

The defeat leaves Chelsea six points behind Manchester United and puts Liverpool only five points behind Jose Mourinho's troubled champions.