Nemanja Matic has defended Chelsea's performance in the 2-0
win at Anfield that heralded the beginning of the end of Liverpool's title
hopes.
The Blues took three vital points in April when, with
Liverpool top of the table after 11 straight Premier League wins, Steven
Gerrard slipped to let Demba Ba in for the opening goal, with Willian sealing
the points in injury time.
Jose Mourinho's team were criticised for negative tactics
but, as he prepared to return to Anfield with the Londoners on Saturday, Matic
told reporters: "Nobody is happy when you lose a game, and they weren't
happy after that game.
"Many teams have tried to park the bus in front of the
goal against us, but we win. It's not easy. If you defend, you have to know how
to defend. It was 2-0. We showed we have quality."
He suggested things would be more attacking this time
around, with the Premier League leaders adopting a more expansive approach.
"It is a different story," he continued. "We
are ready. We are first and we want to stay there. We will play a different
way, and I'm very happy because we will play one big game on Saturday."
Meanwhile, Matic disputed suggestions that Chelsea had been
an expecting an easy time in Wednesday night's Champions League match against
Maribor.
The two sides drew 1-1 in Slovenia, with Matic scoring the
equaliser and Eden Hazard seeing a late penalty saved, and he told Chelsea's
official website: "Maybe everybody else expected an easy game -- but we
didn't.
"We knew that Maribor can play very well, and the
manager prepared us some videos before the game to show us where Maribor could
be dangerous.
"I thought that in the first 10 to 15 minutes we
controlled the game and we played good, but after that Maribor began to play
well and they created some chances.
"In the second half they scored a nice goal, but after
the goal we woke up and had three or four good chances. We scored, but we
didn't take our chances to win at the end. I think that 1-1 is an OK result for
this game."
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