Liverpool - 1 Chelsea - 0 Victory may have been wholly unconvincing and gleaned with a scrappy goal to befit an uncharacteristically stodgy display, but Liverpool will hardly care this morning. The relentless pursuit of Arsenal at the top continues unabated.

With some fixtures, all that changes is the year. Last season Emile Heskey supplied Vladimir Smicer a minute into injury-time to spoil Chelsea's afternoon of endeavour.

This year the England forward waited until 46 seconds from the final whistle to strike the post with Michael Owen, shot-starved all afternoon, alert when it mattered.

A quartet of visiting players crumpled to the turf distraught, their devastation exacerbated by the fact that Chelsea had been everything they were not during their now annual UEFA Cup humiliation last week.

In Norway, Viking Stavanger had run riot. Here the visitors were muscular and determined, energetic midfielders suffocating Liverpool's attacking verve and rugged centre-halves nullifying Owen. In the end, they might as well not have bothered.

"I asked the players to react well to the defeat in midweek and, in my opinion, we deserved a draw," said Claudio Ranieri, having experienced three successive defeats for the first time as Chelsea's manager. "We don't have anything to show but at least we put on a performance. Sometimes you just have bad luck."

His misfortune was ironic. Much has been made on Merseyside of Arsenal having had all the luck so far, but this result will go some way to redressing that imbalance.

Liverpool were vibrant in midweek in dismissing mediocre Russians, but this was their first real test of the season; for 89 minutes, their strangely disjointed display suggested they would fail it.

Steven Gerrard, so irrepressible recently, was on a different wavelength to the strikers he had hoped to supply. His midfield partner Danny Murphy hobbled off with a twinge in his groin, while Stephane Henchoz departed before the interval with a recurrence of a calf strain. The Swiss will need surgery and will be out for a month, his absence further disrupting Scouse rhythm yesterday.

Even while Henchoz was on the pitch, Chelsea should have gleaned the advantage their superiority deserved. The outstanding William Gallas had fizzed a volley just over the bar before, on the quarter-hour, Jesper Gronkjaer crossed for Frank Lampard to nod wastefully wide.

That fluffed attempt constituted their best chance - at least Lampard has an England return to contemplate today - though Chelsea's harrying and smothering across midfield rendered Liverpool ineffective. Sami Hyypia had a half-volley palmed over by Carlo Cudicini, but that was from 35 yards and smacked of desperation.

"It was their only chance of the first half, and they had only one more until the goal went in," added Ranieri. "We hardly deserved to lose."

"It was hardly one of our more fluid displays," said Phil Thompson, Liverpool's assistant manager. "At least the desire was there not to concede. There was a little tiredness in our play and we lacked our usual sharpness, but we still restricted them.

"Chelsea may have passed the ball well, but they didn't have their usual potency. Their chances were kept to a minimum and in that respect we were pleased."

That assessment overlooked the opportunities spurned before the break, though Liverpool perked up marginally thereafter, with Gerrard pummelling a 20-yard attempt on to the bar. Even so, it was not until the substitute Milan Baros added sparkle that Liverpool belatedly disturbed increasingly assured opponents.

The Czech sprinted the length of the pitch, exchanging passes with Owen before seeing his header choked by Cudicini. When he found space in front of goal 12 minutes from time, latching on to Jamie Carragher's pass and wriggling beyond Marcel Desailly, he poked his shot high and wide.

With that miss should have gone the home chances but, patient while the Kop howled in frustration, Liverpool duly eked out one more.

Having worked space calmly inside his own half, Salif Diao - warned of Eidur Gudjohnsen's presence by the crowd - slid a pass through the centre where Heskey found rare space between Gallas and Gronkjaer.

The striker was cramped by Owen's presence, but muscled his team-mate away and forced Cudicini to touch his shot on to the post. As the ball bobbled back along the line, Owen squeezed between the defenders to smash his fourth goal in two league games.

"That was probably our biggest test of the season so far and we still came away with three points," said Thompson, whose side have now made their best start to a season in 12 years.

"At least we've kept our momentum up."

LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Carragher, Henchoz (Traore 40), Hyypia, Riise, Murphy (Diao 75), Hamann, Gerrard, Cheyrou (Baros 71), Owen, Heskey. Subs Not Used: Diouf, Kirkland. Goals: Owen 90.

CHELSEA: Cudicini, Melchiot, Desailly, Gallas, Le Saux, Stanic (Morris 45), Petit, Lampard, Gronkjaer, Hasselbaink (Gudjohnsen 45), Zola. Subs Not Used: de Goey, Zenden, Terry. Booked: Stanic, Gronkjaer.

Referee: G Barber (Hertfordshire).