Dalglish not getting carried away

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has played down his side’s recent spate of good form following their 1-0 upset of Chelsea.

The build-up to the Stamford Bridge clash was firmly centred around the transfer of Fernando Torres to the Blues, but it was Liverpool midfielder Raul Meireles who stole the show when he scored the winner in the second half to propel them into sixth place on the league table.

Liverpool legend Dalglish was delighted at the sound of the final whistle which brought up four straight wins – and four clean sheets – for his team, but he said he was keen to limit the goals of his squad to one match at a time.

“It’s closer than it was before (the top four). I don’t know if it’s in sight, we will just take every game as it comes. The next one is Wigan and that’s what we will focus on in the week,” Dalglish told Sky Sports.

“As I said before, if we keep winning games we will add up points at the end. That will tell us where we will finish.”

“We will go into every game and try to get as much as we can. We have got our reward for this and the previous three games, so that’s where we stand at this moment in time.”

Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti said he felt aggrieved his side were not rewarded for a foul on Branislav Ivanovic late in the second half, but also admitted his side, featuring Torres on debut, did not deserve to win.

“I think the challenge on Ivanovic was a penalty, but we have to accept that we didn’t play well,” Ancelotti said.

“We have to judge the performance of the referee and our performance. We didn’t play well enough to win this game. They defended very well and we weren’t able to find the space to attack.”

Ancelotti said Torres’ substitution on 65 minutes was not a reflection on his performance, but moreso a tactical judgment to try to help benefit the side.

“I wanted to change the system. It was the first game for him (Torres) and for the first 65 minutes he did his best,” he said.

“It wasn’t easy because it was difficult to find space. We played from the back too slowly so there was no possibility for our strikers to play with speed.”

“It was the same system that did very well against Sunderland. The problem was that Liverpool defended very well. They changed tactics, they played with three defenders, and we weren’t able to find space.”