Chelsea 0-1 Liverpool

* Chelsea lose at home for the first time in 87 games

* Liverpool score their first league goal at Stamford Bridge under Rafa Benitez

*Liverpool win away for the first time against a fellow top 4 club under Rafa Benitez

Believe it or not, but all of these happened on Sunday as Liverpool pulled off a stunning 1-0 win over Chelsea at Stamford Bridge to open up a three point gap at the top of the Premier League table.

Both teams went in to the match with their undefeated records at stake and in their finest form, but for Chelsea there was the added pressure of maintaining their undefeated home record spanning more than four years. The West London side hadn't lost a game at home since their 1-0 defeat to Arsenal in February 2004 and hadn't lost in the league in 29 games.

Liverpool on the other hand, who were still without the injured Fernando Torres, were playing with the extra incentive of revenge as their last defeat in all competitions came six months ago at the hands of Chelsea in the second leg of their champions league semi-final clash at Stamford Bridge.

The decisive goal came inside the first ten minutes as Xabi Alonso scored his first goal in a year with a left footed shot which deflected past Petr Cech. From then on the reds dominated the game and Chelsea were restricted to long distance efforts which rarely troubled Pepe Reina.

Although Chelsea were missing key players such as Ballack, Drogba and Joe Cole, they still had a relatively strong team, and were simply off the pace that was needed to overcome what is now a much tougher opposition in Liverpool. For Scolari, he will have to deal with the fact that both Jose Mouhrinho and Avram Grant managed to maintain the record, while he has lost it within 3 months of being at Chelsea.

The good news for Rafa Benitez is that Liverpool are now clear leaders of the Premiership with a 3 point lead over Chelsea and Hull City, a four point lead over Arsenal and an incredible eight point lead over Manchester United (although United do have a game in hand).

The bad news however is that there is now little margin for error and he must find a way to keep the team strong in the league as well as in Europe and cup competitions. So I for one won't be surprised when the famous rotation system comes back in to action and probably sooner rather than later.