Liverpool 2 Chelsea 0

Well, that was unexpected!

What does it mean for Roy? Well basically it gives him some breathing space. Even defeats to both Wigan and Stoke in our next fixtures wouldn’t lead to his dismissal after this run. It hasn’t always been pretty but after 4 wins Hodgson has earned some respite from the pressure he brought on himself.

It doesn’t change my opinion that he is the wrong man for the job. Today’s performance was at times good but at times less so. From an attacking perspective, it seemed as though the best parts of the performance stemmed from talented players clicking and doing what they were capable of rather than as a result of any sort of tactical plan. By contrast, from a defensive perspective, we appeared to be well drilled and clearly adhering to the manager’s instructions. That impression is entirely consistent with everything we’ve come to understand about the manager’s approach. Today that worked but I don’t believe such an approach will ever deliver the League title or would restore our experiences of regularly scalping Europe’s biggest giants as was the case under Rafa.

More sophistication is required if we are to progress to any level that I would consider acceptable.

That said, today it worked. There were mitigating circumstances. Deprived of Lampard and Essien and with Drogba severely inhibited by illness, this was probably a weaker Chelsea team than any Rafa faced in 26 matches over 6 years. Clearly things went for us today. Torres delivered the goods while Chelsea’s forwards fluffed their lines. Reina was fortunate with a couple of saves in the second half – one where the shot hit him as he made himself big and another where the ball amazingly rebounded off the crossbar – as Roy’s defensive tactics completely gifted Chelsea the initiative.

However, credit must be given to Hodgson. He looked down and out after the derby. He seemed beyond the point of no return. Somehow (and it mystifies me) he has won each of the four games since. In each game, the opposition played surprisingly poorly but, as the cliché goes “you can only beat what is in front of you” and Hodgson’s team has done so. Defensively we are seeing signs of improvement and one of the biggest positives today was the performance of Martin Kelly at right-back. He will ensure a continuing Scouse (and English) heartbeat at Anfield after messrs Carragher and Gerrard hang up their boots. It was also pleasing – though a tad risky – to see Shelvey and Spearing brought on ahead of more established yet underperforming squad players. Meanwhile N’gog did great after coming on and my Man of the Match was Lucas who was absolutely fantastic. Seeing Lucas today was like watching Mascherano on form. This was his best performance under Hodgson and it seems that Roy has finally twigged that Lucas needs to be in his first XI and Poulsen needs to be on Mars or further away if possible.

I’m actually buzzing right now. That is the first time since Hodgson took charge.

To be clear, I support the team; not the manager. I don’t want to see the brand of football Roy advocates and I don’t believe that Roy’s brand of football can deliver the successes I crave as a supporter. However, given the choice, I would rather win than play well. If Roy can continue to deliver wins – however ugly or fortunate they might appear – perhaps there will come a point where I have to concede his methods are more effective than I thought. I still don’t believe that will happen but then I didn’t believe we would win today.

I don’t want Roy as our manager but for as long as he is in post I want him to change my mind.