Don't believe the hype

The Insider ------------ CHELSEA: 0 LIVERPOOL: 0

On this night of nights for English football, it seems churlish to take up a stance that doesn't conform to the accepted wisdom, but here goes.

Soccernet's Insider proposes that Chelsea are not as good as either they or the rest of the game's luminaries believe them to be. In a season that has already seen them collect the Carling Cup, oust Barcelona and Bayern Munich from the Champions League, while butturing themselves of the Premiership with a handful of games to spare, this is clearly not going to be an argument likely to win too much support.

However, could it be that Jose Mourinho has arrived in the most privileged job in football at the perfect moment? The moment when the opposition have been crumbling at home and abroad, when they have been at their most vulnerable and open to an onslaught from the new kid on the block.

With Arsenal and Manchester United floundering in the Premiership, Chelsea have pounced in the grand manner to trample all over their territory. Whether they would have been in such a commanding position at the top of the table had United sorted their own house out or if Arsenal had been able to maintain their historic form of last season is a question that will never be answered.

Then in Europe, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Juventus and the rest of the heavyweights of Champions League hierarchy have flattered to deceive and their problems have opened the door for a new face to step into their shoes.

Mourinho and his Chelsea side deserve plenty of credit for filling the void in this year of underachievement, but would a side featuring Glen Johnson and Tiago be expected to reign supreme over Europe in any other year? Would a tactic of lumping it long to a misfiring £24m striker by the name of Didier Drogba be worthy of lavish praise if the English media were not so convinced they were in the presence of a great one in the shape of the Chelsea manager?

On this night of this Champions League semi-final, London's evening newspaper used a pull-out entitled 'Chelsea's Glorious Year' as their chief selling point. So long have their fans waited for any kind of success that their moment in the spotlight is touching, but they have hardly raised the bar to a level that will frighten the rest.

Without a quality striker in their squad, Chelsea have looked vulnerable in the last month as they have lost a couple of key defenders, not to mention the diminishing threat of the wide players who have played such a major role in their success under Mourinho.

Looking tired and less than convincing in recent outings, and, once again, they failed to prove they are the clbutt act of European football. When the spotlight sparkled in their eyes, some looked as if they needed sunglbuttes to deal with the glare and, for long periods, they were relying on set plays to unlock a solid Liverpool backline.

Yet even though Chelsea may have fluffed a few of their lines, this was still a game that sent a shiver down the spine. There are a few fixtures in every football season that feel like an major event, when you feel as if you are fortunate to be in possession of one of the most prized tickets in town. This certainly fell in that category, yet the trouble with nights like this is that they often fail to live up to their billing.

And if you had invested the going rate from touts for a couple of tickets to watch this domestic dust-up - someone suggested £750 was a fair price for a couple of decent seats - you would have gone home feeling very flat and almost cheated.

It was as if these two sides knew too much about each other for this game to be a feast of football. All the mistakes had been made in their first three meetings this season and all that was left now was a battle of attrition to decide who would secure a pbuttage to the ultimate game in European club football.

If Chelsea were as good as some of the so-called experts around me suspected, they would have stamped their clbutt on this match from the off. But without the injured Damien Duff and Arjen Robben - the latter of which was confined to the bench in the first-half as he recovered from his latest knock - the home side lacked the width to unsettle Liverpool.

With the majority of their attacking threat coming straight down the spine of the Liverpool side, the defensive duo of Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher only had a couple of minor scares all night. Indeed, the best effort of the first half came from Liverpool striker Milan Baros, whose flying header brought a decent save out of Petr Cech seven minutes before the break.

The second-half wasn't much better, so it's no wonder a Liverpool fan decided to pick on Soccernet's Insider for the best part of 20 minutes. Unable to claim a seat in the press box, the overflow area had to do, but that meant being surrounding by a bunch of drunken Scousers who did little to play down their stereotypes.

Calling every Liverpool player 'lad' and seemingly suffering with a farting problem throughout the match, probably due to excess lager, they were hardly a credit to Merseyside.

When one believed I worked for The Sun, the most hated publication in Liverpool, it seemed my number was up. 'I'm gonna kick ya lad', was one of the more friendly comments he threw my way as he appeared to believe I was to blame for the nation's favourite tabloid's coverage of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. The fact that I was just 13 years old at the time clearly pbutted him by.

Getting back to the action, the arrival of Djibril Cisse-lad from the bench provided Liverpool with some momentum, but this was not a vintage night for Stevie-lad Gerrard. His shot that struck a corner flag moments before the final whistle summed up his lacklustre display. Xavi Alonso-lad will miss the second leg after he picked up a booking for a less than obvious foul on Eidur Gudjohnson.

Jose Mourinho used his press conference to start the mind games ahead of the second leg as he hailed this stalemate as a 'very good result'. 'I think we will be in the Final after this,' he stated. 'When you draw the first leg of a Champions League semi-final, with a clean sheet, it is perfect. Now we can go to Anfield and all the pressure in on them. I would say that 99.9 per cent of their people think it will be Liverpool in Turkey, but I'm sure we will score in Liverpool. I like this situation we find ourselves in very much.'

Mind games aplenty there, but his opposite number is not the type for such antics. 'I'm not happy with the result because we controlled a lot of the game, especially in the second half,' said Rafael Benitez. 'I don't agree that 99.9 per cent believe Liverpool are in the final; but if you had said to me we had the chance to reach a Champions League final by winning a game at Anfield, I would be happy with that.

'We have done a good job in defence tonight, but I would not agree we are favourites to go through now. I believe they didn't have a shot on target, so that shows we did well, but anything can happen in the second leg, we know that.'

So there it was. The English Civil War, the greatest show on earth. In reality, it was little more than a mediocre bore between two less than brilliant sides. Hardly worth £750 of anyone's money.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Jamie Carragher

This guy keeps shining every week and he is looking every bit the complete defender. His last gasp tackle to deny Chelsea Eidur Gudjohnson late on was a highlight of a dour game. Good on ya Jamie-lad.

FOOD WATCH: Soccernet's Insider was just in time to snatch the final potatoes to go with a tasty chicken stew. The apple pie to follow went down a treat.

NOTE FOR ALL FANS: If you fancy blagging your way into a press box any time soon, pretend you work for a Japanese newspaper. You don't even have to bring a notepad for effect as it just seems to provide you with a free ticket to the game of your choice. There was at least ten on hand for this high profile fixture.

INSDIER VERDICT: The Lord Mayor's show failed to deliver the goods and Chelsea's season could well end in anti-climax at Anfield next Tuesday. They appear to be running out of steam just at the wrong time.