Chelsea 0 Liverpool 2

Chelsea were dumped out of the Carling Cup by Liverpool tonight 2-0 though a mixture of inept play and shocking decision-making from referee Philip Dowd. Second half goals from Maxi Rodriguez and Martin Kelly, both unchallenged efforts, were enough to see off a Chelsea side bereft of ideas and confidence. They were not helped by an indifferent referee in Philip Dowd who made several glaring mistakes, the first of which came after just three minutes when he bizarrely denied the Blues a penalty. A fine one-two with Josh MccEachran saw David Luiz arrow into the Liverpool penalty area. He appeared to be upended by Sebasttian Coates just inside the box. But Dowd decided that Luiz dived and the Brazil centre-back received a yellow card for his efforts. Two minutes later and Liverpool felt aggrieved when Andy Carroll thought he was pushed by Luiz in the Chelsea area after missing a left-wing cross by Jose Enrique. Dowd simply played on. The game settled down after that initial flurry only to explode on 20 minutes Liverpool were awarded a penalty when Alex handled a cross by Enrique. Dowd appeared to miss the incident, with Liverpool players rushing to demand the spot kick. After a few seconds of confusion, Down pointed to the spot, presumably having got a signal from the assistant linesman or the fourth official. Up stepped Carroll, who ran up to shoot with his left foot but Ross Turnbull produced a wonder save, diving low to his right to deny the Liverpool hit man. Turnbull's next piece of action was less dramatic, snuffing out a simple shot by Enrique three minutes before the break. Seconds later and McEachran's night was over. The young midfielder lipped off with a suspected bruised left ankle to be replaced by Ramires. Dowd's poor night continued when he appeared to book Ryan Bertrand for a foul on Henderson, when in fact Lukaku cut down the midfielder. The Belgium striker almost broke the deadlock on 45 minutes but his glancing header, from 10 yards out was just wide of Reina's goal. Chelsea hit the crossbar on 54 minutes through Malouda's left foot speculative swipe while the follow-up by Malouda was cleared by Coates. The end to end nature of the game saw the visitors take the lead three minutes later when Rodriguez had the freedom of Stamford Bridge to stab home unchallenged from six yards out from an pass from Bellamy. Number two came on 63 minutes when an inch-perfect free-kick by Bellamy, wide on the left found Martin Kelly, again unchallenged in the six yard box, the young English defender powerfully headed home. Chelsea boss Andre Villas-Boas acted swiftly replacing Lukaku and Malouda with Nicolas Anelka and Juan Mata. Liverpool made an enforced change on 71 minutes when Charlie Adam took to the field in place of Lucas, carried off after he came off worse in a challenge on Mata. Torres had a half chance to get a goal back for the home side on 74 minutes but the Spain forward's header was easily held by Reina. But that's as good as it got for the Londoners and Livepool's boss Kenny Dalglish's record of never losing to Chelsea while being a Liverpool boss continues. Teams: Chelsea - Turnbull, Luiz, Romeu, Lampard, Torres, Malouda, Bosingwa, Lukaku, McEachran, Alex, Bertrand. Subs: Hilarious, Ivanovic, Ramires, Mata, Ferreira, Kalou, Anelka Liverpool: Reina, Enrique, Carroll, Rodriguez, Henderson, Coates, Spearing, Lucas, Carragher, Kelly, Bellamy Subs: Doni, Suarez, Kuyt, Downing, Adam, Skrtel, Flanagan.