Guus Hiddink had Chelsea look like a totally different team than they were two months ago versus Liverpool when they were managed by Luiz Scolari, and his tactics showed why he is regarded as one of the world's master coaches.
Phil McNulty of BBC Sports outlined how Hiddink game-planned to cut off Liverpool's key threats, and won this theoretical chess match against Rafael Benitez, rightly regarded as one of the Champions League's supreme strategists.
It appeared that his key points of emphasis were:
1) Take Steven Gerrard out of the match - by cutting him out, it also denied the right quality combination and service to their key scoring threat, Fernando Torres.
(Michael) Essien held the key to the tactical approach devised by Hiddink to underpin his stated intention to attack Liverpool at Anfield - a ploy threatened by many but actually employed by few, usually only the supremely confident or the foolishly misguided.
Hiddink detailed Essien to shackle Steven Gerrard, and in doing so cut the cord between Liverpool's captain and Fernando Torres. The Ghanaian delivered and the Dutchman's master plan fell into place perfectly.
He said: "It is not so difficult to know where the weapons and arms are in Liverpool. It is Torres and Gerrard and the triangle with Dirk Kuyt and the right-back Alvaro Arbeloa. This is what you have to disarm and Essien was key in this."
2) Take advantage of Liverpool's unorganized shape defending restarts.
Zonal defence is one of the great enigmas of the modern game - why not mark footballers? - and Liverpool employ it with very mixed results. It cost them dearly as the unlikely figure of Branislav Ivanovic headed in two corners either side of the interval.
Hiddink dissected the system with a surgeon's precision as he explained: "Liverpool have zonal defence and they have no marking. We have players who are tall, time everything well and who are brave. We talked about that and how we could get some benefits."
3) Find the right roles and support for his key players - Hiddink has a reputation for doing a great job of getting his players to 'over achieve'; I think the key is putting players in roles they will succeed, and matching them up with players who will put them in a position to succeed. Opposed to leaving Drogba on his own, he had him flanked with true wingers in Malouda and Kalou. This allowed Lampard and Ballack to be able to join up underneath Drogba.
Makes it sound easy doesn't he? The secret is in the simplicity. As former Chelsea star Pat Nevin told me last week: "Hiddink gets good players doing what they are good at."
All Chelsea's players took up the right positions, Liverpool were tested by triangles of passing. It was almost as if Chelsea have been reborn under Hiddink - even the most hardened Liverpool fan would accept they were a revelation.
And this is why we saw Drogba back to his rampaging best, albeit producing some wayward finishing before he scored Chelsea's third, Ballack striding through midfield after an uncertain start and even the under-achiever Florent Malouda actually demonstrating why Liverpool boss Benitez was furious to miss out on him.
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