Liverpool look to have the edge

FOR homegrown footballers such as Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher hearing the Liverpool fans singing deliriously after the weekend’s late, late win against Fulham must have been inspiring.

“We’re gonna win the league, now you’re gonna believe us,” the supporters chanted for 10 minutes or more following the final whistle as, for 24 hours, Liverpool hit the Premier League summit.

It is 19 years since Liverpool fans have been able to sing that with any real conviction.

But for players such as Fernando Torres, unburdened by history, tonight at Anfield against Chelsea is all about Europe. All about proving themselves on football’s biggest club stage in the Champions League.

Give Torres the choice of winning the Premier League title or lifting the big silver cup in Rome towards the end of next month and there is no contest. It is the Champions League every time.

The same would go for Xabi Alonso and Pepe Reina and most of Liverpool’s foreign contingent, especially the Spanish who won Euro 2008 with Spain last summer.

As Torres says: “Domestic titles are very important but to win the Champions League you are saying we are the best team in Europe.

“On the way home from the European Championship I made a promise that I wanted more of this success with Liverpool and it does not come any bigger than the European Cup.”

No need for motivation then. No need for any additional spice in a fixture that throws Liverpool and Chelsea together for the fifth consecutive time in the competition, happily this time without the posturing of Jose Mourinho and the bad feeling which categorised former encounters.

The teams know each other so well that the tie is impossible to call with any certainty.

Both have solid goalkeepers and mean defences. Both have powerful midfields and the respective influence of Gerrard and Frank Lampard will be crucial.

But nothing is likely to be more decisive than the form of Torres and Didier Drogba, the latter who missed Chelsea’s 2-0 victory against Newcastle on Saturday but is fighting to be fit.

Torres, who scored the winning goal against Germany in the European Championship final, is arguably the world’s most complete striker. With lightning pace and fluid movement he has the ability to unsettle the best defenders as he proved when picking the pocket of Manchester United’s Nemanja Vidic in Liverpool’s recent triumph at Old Trafford.

You know what you are getting with Torres. Honest work rate. Goal threat. Invariably a touch of genius.

If only the same could be said for Drogba.

The truth is Drogba owes Chelsea. He owes them for the indiscipline he showed in getting sent off in that Champions League final which meant the Londoners lost one of their expert penalty takers.

He owes them for 18 months of dubious application since Mourinho left Stamford Bridge.

There was a time during Mourinho’s reign when Drogba was the world’s dominant and most abrasive striker. He gave everything in every match. Scored wonderful goals and did so against the best opposition.

When Drogba played well so did Chelsea.

There have been signs once more of the real Drogba since Guus Hiddink took over at Stamford Bridge.

So who has the edge? It has to be Liverpool, who have beaten Chelsea twice already in the league this season and for whom European nights at Anfield have become a force of nature.

Just ask Torres, one man who is hungry for more.