Abu's Bottom Line

Abramovich sat in the Presidential Tribune at Stamford Bridge, his face as dark as thunder.

To be honest, he was not satisfied with this match.

Chelsea had not played well. Although they appeared to have the advantage in possession, they had failed to create any truly threatening attacks, making the match look extremely dull.

Dull matches had never been what he wanted. He wanted to win—and he wanted to win in style.

Ideally, he wanted the kind of match where Chelsea overwhelmed their opponents with wave after wave of attacks and won by a wide margin. That was what he called satisfying.

Before Scolari took over, he had promised exactly that as well. But it was obvious that the Brazilian had underestimated how difficult managing in the Premier League would be.

After Makélélé left, Mikel had been pushed into the starting holding-midfield role. This African midfielder, who had originally played as an attacking midfielder, was quite capable when it came to distributing the ball. Together with Lampard and Deco, Chelsea really could control possession in midfield.

By comparison, Liverpool looked far more careless.

Of course, the Reds' midfield was still outstanding defensively. The Double Defensive Midfielders pairing of Mascherano and Xabi Alonso, together with Gerrard, made Liverpool's midfield one of the finest configurations in Europe at the moment.

Chelsea had repeatedly tried to break through the middle in this match, but had failed to create any danger. Instead, Liverpool had stopped them time and again, forcing them out to the wings. Yet Chelsea could not break through there either, leaving their attack completely shackled.

Fortunately, their defense had held up well.

"At the very least, we haven't let Yang Yang score again." Abramovich chuckled.

Peter Kenyon and the other Chelsea executives also laughed and nodded, clearly agreeing with their boss.