A moment like that came along in the 64th minute on Tuesday night. Barkley striding through, Pedro in a prime scoring position, various observers willing him to pass, just pass mate, for God’s sake pass.
Yet, as feared, Barkley held on to it. Just long enough to score one of the goal’s of the season. Just long enough to score the goal that confirmed there would be no domestic double for Liverpool this year. On the last two occasions Chelsea have knocked them out of the FA Cup, 1997 and 2012, they have gone on to win it.
Keep playing like this and they will take some stopping this year, too. Chelsea were the better side, pretty much start to finish, and had the game’s star turn in 18-year-old Billy Gilmour. For all the clamour over Liverpool’s young players in this competition it was Gilmour who stole the show from the likes of Curtis Jones and Neco Williams.
He shot from outside the area, his speciality, and while the strike kept low and moved in the air, stand-in Adrian made a terrible hash of it. The ball squirmed off his knees and into the corner of the net. The pity was that less than a minute earlier he had a made a quite brilliant save to keep Liverpool level.
On this occasion it was Pedro whose shot was deflected across goal, to the feet of Willian. He hit one with such venom it seemed capable of leaving a smoking hole in anything that blocked its path. Instead, Adrian matched it with a stunning stop. Liverpool were not happy to surrender this,. It was not a case of Klopp giving up on the FA Cup, certainly not on the back of a 3-0 reverse at Watford and a 1-0 defeat at Atletico Madrid.
Three of the first choice back four were present, plus Fabinho in midfield and Mane upfront. Given the points gap between these teams Klopp would have hoped to have had enough. No manager sets out to lose – certainly not to a significant rival such as Chelsea.
Normal service should be resumed on Saturday at home to Bournemouth and everyone knows where Liverpool’s priorities lie this season. Yet winning is a habit and it is one Liverpool have lost of late. This was their third defeat in four games, their worst run across all competitions since the end of the 2017-18 season, although that did include the Champions League final, and a semi-final against Roma which began with Liverpool holding a 5-2 first leg lead. Olivier Giroud set him away by winning a counter-attacking header against Curtis Jones – but Barkley’s run summed up Chelsea’s energy and ambition. He simply powered through, with Joe Gomez backing off, to significant cost. Pedro presented a handy passing option at the end but Barkley ignored him and went optimistically for goal instead. It beat Adrian to his right – giving Chelsea the cushion they desired and deserved, and smoothing a path into the quarter-finals. It was a goal that merited the defeat of Liverpool, whose invincibility is now very much in past tense.
By the end, Jurgen Klopp had introduced Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino from the bench, but never looked like finding a way through. Kepa Arrizabalaga, restored to Chelsea’s first team like a cup understudy which must have felt a mixed blessing, had been outstanding in the first-half but was called upon less and less.
The match belonged very much to Chelsea, who hit the bar twice in the second-half, through a Mason Mount free-kick and a good shot from Giroud, battling through on the edge of the area.
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