Back to drawing board for gracious Scolari

This match decided nothing but make no mistake, it was decisive. Chelsea manager Luiz Felipe Scolari tried to put Chelsea's first home defeat in the Premier League for 87 games into context when he said: "Liverpool were better, they won but it is only three points."

A good try but he and his opposite number, Rafa Benitez, both know this was a hugely significant match in their quest for the Premier League title.

Crucial because Liverpool's 1-0 victory was the first time Chelsea fans had seen their team beaten in the Premier League since Arsenal won 2-1 there in February 2004.

Vital because Liverpool's win puts them on top of the table, three points ahead of Scolari's team.

Pivotal because it was Scolari's first defeat in charge and he will have found out much about his players and the way they reacted in the face of adversity.

Credit to the Brazilian though. He has been impressive in victory so far but even more so in defeat.

There were no excuses, no pointing the finger at officialdom, no casting around for a scapegoat.

"We did not expect this result but we need to understand that Liverpool are a very good team they shot one better ball than us and they win," he admitted. "I am sorry about the record but for me, if Liverpool beat Chelsea in any place, it is still just three points.

"We lost because Liverpool were better. I have some players who cannot play because of injury but this is life.

"Benitez is intelligent but he and I know that we do not have a centre forward who is two metres tall.

"When we cross into the box we only win one or two of the high balls. I do not want this, we need to play, not put the ball into the box every time."

It is true that Chelsea are so unaccustomed to defeat that, the longer the game went on, the more unimaginative they became.

Instead of playing to their strengths and playing through the normally influential midfield talent of players such as Frank Lampard, they reverted to launching hopeful crosses into the Liverpool box where, in the absence of Didier Drogba, the Liverpool defence held sway.

Benitez had certainly prepared his team well. He knew Scolari likes to utilise his full-backs, Ashley Cole and Jose Bosingwa, so he employed the industrious Dirk Kuyt on the right and Albert Riera on the opposite flank to deny them space.

In the middle, Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso, who scored the only goal of the game after ten minutes, pushed up on Lampard and Deco while, in the continued absence of hamstring victim Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard played a free role up front.

The tactics worked a treat but the real accolades should go to the Liverpool players, who executed the Benitez master plan to perfection.

When Chelsea pressed forward, first with urgency and then increasing desperation, Liverpool funnelled back as a unit and then, when they won the ball, broke forward with purpose.

It all added up to an intruiging match, a high level contest between two top-class teams.

Too often the Premier League is over-hyped, overblown, but not this time. This was by no means a spectacular affair but as a tactical battle between two heavyweight title contenders, it was thoroughly compulsive watching.

The winning goal though, early in the match, was slightly fortunate, Alonso's shot taking a deflection off Bosingwa and beating Petr Cech.

Gerrard went close midway through the half, his shot from long range being tipped over by the Chelsea goalkeeper while Deco almost equalised nine minutes before half time with a shot that went a yard wide.

Scolari brought on Juliano Belletti and Franco Di Santo for the disappointing Florent Malouda and Salomon Kalou 12 minutes into the second half but it was Liverpool who still provided the greater threat while the visitors' defence, superbly marshalled by Jamie Carragher, held the Blues at bay.

So what now for these two heavyweights?

As Benitez said quite rightly: "You may have a good plan but it depends on the players and credit to my team because they worked so hard."

As for Scolari, this defeat will give him cause for some quiet reflection.

The rest of the Premier League and more specifically Arsenal and Manchester United will have seen that Chelsea's Plan A failed to work against Liverpool. What Chelsea, and Scolari, need now, is a Plan B.