Late, late goal by Owen gives Chelsea the blues

Liverpool 1 Chelsea 0

Following a further injury to the Swiss defender, Liverpool have emulated Manchester United's decision to send Rio Ferdinand for a knee operation at the beginning of international fortnight.

Henchoz has struggled with hamstring and groin injuries this season and yesterday limped off in the first half of the 1-0 win over Chelsea, which came thanks to Michael Owen's last-gasp winning goal. Owen's late, late show rescued Liverpool and kept them on the heels of the champions. As the clock ticked towards what looked like a deserved point for Chelsea, it was also beginning to look like Arsenal were going to steal a four-point lead at the top of the Premiership table.

This was anything but vintage Liverpool. They were slow of mind and body, failing to unpick a solid Chelsea rearguard superbly marshalled by

Marcel Desailly. And if the Londoners were looking to prove themselves again after their UEFA Cup surrender against Viking Stavanger in midweek, they were doing a pretty good job until Owen struck in the last minute.

Everything else had failed for Liverpool but substitute Salif Diao fed Emile Heskey, who surged into the box and forced his shot past the diving Carlo Cudicini. It bounced back off the post only for Owen, who had been kept so quiet all afternoon, to arrive and tap the ball home.

Chelsea did not deserve defeat, and must have recalled how they also lost in the last seconds to a Vladimir Smicer goal in this fixture last term. Liverpool had fielded an unchanged side from that which mauled Spartak Moscow in midweek, while Chelsea were able to restore their defence with the return of Desailly, Mario Melchiot and Graeme Le Saux.

The Anfield side should have been on a high after eight goals in their last two games, but they were strangely subdued while Chelsea was in the driving seat. The hosts were penned in and it was clear the accusations levelled against Chelsea's highly-paid players in recent days had had a galvanising effect.

The home side's first effort came after 30 minutes when John Arne Riise sent a header wide from Danny Murphy's corner. Liverpool came alive when Steven Gerrard sprinted away from Desailly and fired over a cross which was hacked behind, and then when the corner was only half cleared to Sami Hyypia, he lashed in a dipping 30-yard shot which Cudicini diverted over. For a while Liverpool looked to be finding their sharpness, Bruno Cheyrou seeing a close-range shot blocked by Emmanuel Petit before Gerrard hit the woodwork. That chance came after 52 minutes, Dietmar Hamann's free-kick blocked by the wall and the ball bouncing out to Gerrard who lashed a 30-yard shot which beat Cudicini and smacked against the bar.

But Liverpool's pressure did not last. Chelsea's defensive stranglehold on Owen continued and the speed of thought needed to break down an increasingly assured defence was absent from the hosts' play. After 69 minutes Liverpool made a long awaited change, bringing on Baros in place of the ineffective Cheyrou, who had been marked out of the game by his countryman Petit.

Heskey went to the left of midfield and Baros joined Owen in attack. It produced instant pace into the proceedings and Baros' first involvement was a pacy run across midfield, a ball out to Owen and then his arrival in the box to force Cudicini to punch away under intense pressure.

Baros then surged in from the right but somehow lifted a close-range drive over the bar when he had done all the hard stuff in beating Desailly. Then came the thrilling finale and Owen's fifth goal of the season, his first from open play at Anfield this season.

LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Carragher, Henchoz (Traore 40), Hyypia, Riise, Murphy (Diao 75), Hamann, Gerrard, Cheyrou (Baros 71), Owen, Heskey.

CHELSEA: Cudicini, Melchiot, Desailly, Gallas, Le Saux, Stanic (Morris 45), Petit, Lampard, Gronkjaer, Hasselbaink (Gudjohnsen 45), Zola.

Referee: G Barber (Hertfordshire).