We’ve had a good run of results against West Ham and Newcastle and this week and hopefully we’ll make sure of advancement in the Champions League this week.

Hopefully blogging services will resume normal transmission in the next few weeks.

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Funny enough… two of us were chatting in the car earlier about the match tonight, giving the forecast. Pre-game I had figured it would be either all Liverpool or all Inter and I was half tempted to ring the bookie’s to see what odds they were offering on Liverpool to score at least three goals in the game.

They nearly did it too.

2-0 was the score though and 2-0 should be more than enough to keep whining fans happy, even if it was left late to find the two goals.

The first came from Dirk Kuyt, his shot taking a hop, skip and a jump across the box to beat Julio Cesar in the Inter goal, Jermaine Pennant setting up the Dutchman for his second goal in the week. Not bad considering the sizeable gap in the timeline he’d had to his prior goal spell.

Not resting at 1-0, Gerrard managed to squeeze a shot in low to Cesar’s right before the game was up, the low drive beating a string of Inter players from 25 yards out to sneak into the bottom corner. How he saw the opening is beyond me but it got there and sealed what really was Liverpool’s night.

They started well, put the pressure on and were pretty relentless in going forward - Kuyt, Torres, Babel and Crouch all getting involved in the attacking game. Torres had the run of Inter in the first half hour, Marco Materazzi seeing red within 30 minutes for two bookable offences, dragging Torres to the ground with him when he had the chance.

What it means now is that we’re off to the San Siro with two goal advantage, a nice lead to have when you consider a place in the Champions League quarter final is at stake.

For their part, Chelsea could only draw with Olympiakos in Greece while favourites Real Madrid went down 2-1 away to Roma. Hopefully tonight can both raise and sustain morale with ‘Boro on the cards for Saturday.

Last eight? Yes please.

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The fact is, Liverpool were the better side today. Chelsea know it. The Chelsea fans know it. The Liverpool fans know it and, but for for lack of finishing, it could have been 1-0 or 2-0 to Liverpool.

Chances were plentiful for Peter Crouch in the first half but he couldn’t make anything of them. Try and all as they did in the first half and second half, Liverpool couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net. More annoyingly so, the side looked good in defence as well, shutting down Chelsea at every opportunity, Pepe Reina remaining relatively untroubled throughout the game.

Lucas looked well in the middle of the park alongside Mascherano and Rafa’s pairing of Martin Skrtel and Jamie Carragher in the the centre of defence continues to bloom with Skrtel passing each test shown to him today.

Visibly, Liverpool were stronger in the first half and really should have hit home at that stage. Striking options were limited before the game with the absence of both Torres and Voronin but more should really have been made of Peter Crouch’s chances. Dirk Kuyt was a bit isolated on the right though did make it through the 90 minutes, Liverpool’s changes coming when Babel was swapped out for Pennant with 20 minutes to go.

10 minutes to go in the game and Michael Ballack had a decent chance to hand Chelsea the lead, his volley ducking wide past the post in a let off for Liverpool. Any goal at that stage of the game would have killed the whole thing off.

With the draw, we’re back into fifth in the table, thanks only to goal difference over Aston Villa and Man City (who beat United in the derby just to piss off Alex Ferguson earlier today). Everton are on the horizon but I still wonder whether, with lack of clinical finishing as there was today, will Liverpool be able to cement a place in the top four of the table before the end of the season.

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Peter Crouch has had an absolute string of chances but has failed to convert any of them so far. With the absence of Torres and Voronin, he’s going to need to up his game in the second half or work on providing more opportunities for the likes of Babel and Kuyt and Chelsea plot against Crouch for the second half.

Overall, Liverpool have been the stronger side in the first half, just about, but you can’t write off Chelsea by any means. They have been a bit less aggressive that you’d expect, both Joe Cole and Frank Lampard keeping an eye on their challenges as a booking for either writes them out of the League Cup Final.

Defensively, Liverpool have done well in shutting down the Chelsea attack but going forward I’d still like to see Kuyt coming out of that right position more and having a crack up front, seal up that goal drought of his.

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Juliano Belletti is already on a yellow card for Chelsea, three minutes in for intentional hand ball but for the moment anyway, Liverpool looking steady.

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Pepe Reina, Steve Finnan, John Arne Riise, Martin Skrtel, Jamie Carragher, Javier Mascherano, Lucas Leiva, Ryan Babel, Steven Gerrard, Dirk Kuyt, Peter Crouch.

On the bench are Itandje, San Jose, Benayoun, Pennant, Kewell.

Ex-Red Nic Anelka starts up front for Chelsea and he’ll need containing, along with the pain in Liverpool’s side that is Joe Cole.

Game on, live game updates available here during the game on LiverpoolAccess.com

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No doubt we’re going to hear more on the debate of injuries to high-profile players while on friendly duty for their respective nations.

Torres had asked Luis Arragones during the French clash to take him off after feeling a twinge. After discovering it was more than just a twinge, Torres has been ruled out of the Chelsea game on Sunday and possibly beyond.

There’s no definitive word yet on how long Torres will be out but there’s always the risk of him missing not only the FA Cup game but also the Champions League clash against Inter. On top of that it looks like Mascherano is 50/50 for the Chelsea clash as he’s involved with Argentina’s clash with Guatemala tonight.

With Xabi Alonso suspended for the clash, that could leave us down another top-form player in a vital game in the league.

We’re challenging for 4th place in the league - 4th place - and you’re not going to face much tougher opposition than Chelsea in the league at the moment. Dropping three points at the weekend would be another knock-back for Liverpool so losing the likes of Torres and Mascherano for the clash will be tough.

Torres absence should mean that Peter Crouch and Dirk Kuyt will start up front (with Voronin unavailable), Kuyt having been dropped for the Netherlands mid-week friendly.

Hopefully the injury won’t keep him out of European action as we need the entire squad firing on all cylinders.

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Fabio Capello has announced Steven Gerrard as England skipper for this week’s England friendly against Euro 2008 co-hosts Switzerland.

You think Capello would have named John Terry as captain if Terry was available, continuing on from Steve McClaren’s choice?

Hopefully it is a sign of things to come. We all know that Gerrard is a proven leader at Liverpool and there’s no doubt in anyone’s mind that he can replicate his influence at international level.

The Swiss game will also be Capello’s first game in charge so perhaps a good run against Switzerland on Wednesday night will lead to a repeat selection. Sky Sports had mentioned earlier today that Rio Ferdinand and ex-Red Michael Owen were also in the frame for the captaincy but I’m delighted to see it go to Gerrard on this occasion.

That said, he’s no stranger to the skipper’s armband in the England fold, having captained England on five occasions last year. When Steve McClaren had to make a choice for his new captain, it was down to the wire between Gerrard and John Terry, Terry claiming the armband.

Stevie was also named as England Player Of The Year this week in an online poll conducted by Nationwide.

Pity he won’t have the opportunity to test it at Euro 2008 this year.

Then again, neither does Robbie Keane.

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Skrtel finished runner up in the same award in 2006 but his input to the Russian premier league winning side at Zenit St. Petersburg has placed him at the top of the pile.

No doubt it will take a while for Skrtel to adjust to things at Liverpool but his presence means more healthy competition for a starting place in the heart of defence, more so with Daniel Agger on the way back from injury.

Skrtel played over 100 games at Zenit, scoring five times. Fingers crossed he’ll be able to do the same at Liverpool as he adapts to the flow of the English game. So far he’s come on as a sub against Villa (albeit in a strange tactical switch at the time), started in the FA Cup against Havant’ and started against Sunderland at the weekend.

Whether or not he starts against Chelsea remains to be seen, but why not?

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