Three down before half-time... Rafa needs another miracle

NOT for the first time where Rafael Benitez and Carlo Ancelotti are concerned, it’s the Liverpool manager who finds himself three down – except it’s not even half-time yet.

Last season, the Merseysiders were beaten just twice in the Premier League: this time they’ve already managed to lose three out of the first eight. Still early days, of course, but already it’s beginning to look like the end to that long title drought will require something in the order of another miracle.

If Liverpool are to take any heart from the defeat to Chelsea, it’s that for a full hour of this contest they gave about as good as they got – and away from home against one of the big guns, at that – the game finely balanced right up until the moment when the home side first found the net.