Liverpool's faint hopes of retaining their place in the Champions League all but came to an end this afternoon as they failed to beat recently-crowned Premier League champions Chelsea.
The Reds had to become the first team to win at Stamford Bridge in the league this season if they were to keep their top-four hopes alive, but they were forced to settle for a point as the Blues preserved their unbeaten record.
John Terry headed the hosts in front inside five minutes and it was opposing captain Steven Gerrard who earned Liverpool a draw on his last appearance in West London.
Read Sports Mole's minute-by-minute updates below to see how the action unfolded.
Afternoon all! The pick of the games in the Premier League this weekend takes place at Stamford Bridge as newly-crowned champions Chelsea host Liverpool. We've got a bumper 90 minutes of build-up, but before we get into the nitty-gritty...
UPDATE: Let's bring you an update from the day's earlier kickoff between Manchester City and Queens Park Rangers. QPR have to win to avoid relegation today, but it's not looking good as they trail 2-0 with the second half just kicking off. Read about the first period with our half-time report.
Oh, and if you want to follow that game live on SM, then just open this link in a new tab.
UPDATE: It's 3-0 City as Aguero doubles his tally on the day. QPR are joining Burnley in being relegated back to the Championship.
Right, enough of that. Let's look ahead to our feature game here and what a tasty tussle it is. Chelsea and Liverpool's bitterness towards one another has grown and grown over the last 10 years, with several important meetings both in the league and cups.
Liverpool were oh so close to winning the league last season, but this term they've been off the impressive pace set by Chelsea for much of the season. Jose Mourinho's Blues wrapped up the title last weekend with a 1-0 win over Crystal Palace. It is their fourth top-flight crown in 10 years and the third under Mr Mourinho.
STAT: Having clinched the title, we now know that on the final day of the 2014-15 PL season, Chelsea will have led the table for 274 days of the season – a Premier League record.
Chelsea are an impressive 15 league games unbeaten (winning 11) since their New Year's Day defeat at White Hart Lane to Tottenham Hotspur. Mourinho sang the praises of his players for their response to that defeat in his press conference on Friday:
"The key moment was the stability after losing at Spurs, everybody stuck together and we were very calm," the Portuguese coach said. "What pleases me is winning the title, the way we did it and the consistency we've shown in difficult periods."
You'll see the combative midfield duo of Cesc Fabregas and Nemanja Matic in the below vine, but all eyes today will be on 19-year-old Chelsea striker Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who will make his first start for the Blues. Mourinho outlined so in his programme notes. Full team news will be with us in about 10 minutes.
A bit more on Loftus-Cheek - he is a 19-year-old English striker who made his Premier League debut late on from the bench against Manchester City back in January. He also made one substitute appearance in the Champions League group stages earlier this term. Internationally, he has a fine record at Under-19 level, but is yet to break into the Under-21 set-up.
If you head to our Chelsea vs. Liverpool game hub you'll find our preview and plenty of build-up articles on the upcoming match in West London. With Chelsea having won the title, they will be given a guard of honour by their opponents and there's been plenty of talk about that. Mourinho and his captain John Terry have both suggested that they'd rather not have it, while Liverpool midfielder Jordan Henderson believes that it will motivate the visitors.
UPDATE: QPR are going down in flames as they concede two quick goals to fall 5-0 down to Man City. Aguero scored from the spot for his hat-trick and 25th league goal of the season, while James Milner added the fifth. Closing 20 minutes live here.
How will Steven Gerrard feel when he is applauding Chelsea onto the field? The long-standing Liverpool captain could have potentially joined Chelsea earlier in his career, with Mourinho saying he tried to sign the former England captain three times. In what is his last trip to Stamford Bridge before a move to MLS, will Gerrard feel a little regret?
TEAM NEWS! Both lineups are just reaching us and, as expected, Loftus-Cheek makes his full Chelsea debut. For the visitors, there's a rare start for Rickie Lambert. Starting XIs coming right up...
CHELSEA XI: Courtois; Ivanovic, Zouma, Terry, Filipe Luis; Mikel, Fabregas; Willian, Loftus-Cheek, Hazard; Remy
CHELSEA SUBS: Beeney, Azpilicueta, Cahill, Ake, Matic, Cuadrado, Drogba
Mourinho makes a total of five changes from the narrow win over Palace. Gary Cahill, Cesar Azpilicueta, Nemanja Matic, Juan Cuadrado Didier Drogba drop out, with Kurt Zouma, Filipe Luis, John Obi Mikel, Loic Remy and Loftus-Cheek coming in.
It's no surprise to see so many changes in the hosts' lineup. Mourinho is free to experiment and it's a good opportunity for the likes of Loftus-Cheek to impress against tough opposition.
LIVERPOOL XI: Mignolet; Johnson, Lovren, Skrtel, Can; Gerrard, Coutinho, Henderson; Lallana, Sterling; Lambert
LIVERPOOL SUBS: Ward, Toure, Moreno, Lucas, Allen, Ibe, Sinclair
Brendan Rodgers names an unchanged Liverpool XI from the 2-1 win over QPR last weekend. Jordon Ibe is perhaps the most surprising omission as Lambert continues up front.
STALWART: Chelsea captain John Terry is the only Blue to play every minute of their league campaign this term (3150) and he again starts today. PFA Player of the Year Eden Hazard has also started every league game for the champions.
REFEREE WATCH: The man in charge today is Andre Marriner, who last weekend gave out seven yellow cards in Man City's 1-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur. He last refereed Chelsea at Loftus Road when they won 1-0 against QPR last month, while his last Liverpool game was their 0-0 draw with Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup.
All over at the Etihad Stadium as Manchester City beat QPR 6-0 to relegate the West London side.
STAT: Jose Mourinho has lost just one of his 96 Premier League games at home (against Sunderland). Can Liverpool make it two?
KICKOFF! We're underway in a sun-soaked capital!
BOOKING! That didn't take long! Early bite to the game as Fabregas is booked by Marriner for a nasty tackle on Sterling. The England international stays down and might not be able to continue.
The winger is back on, albeit a little gingerly, and looks like he'll be fine to carry on.
GOAL! CHELSEA 1-0 LIVERPOOL (TERRY)
Early breakthrough for the champions and it's captain Terry who gets up well to meet Fabregas's outswinging corner from the right. His eighth goal in all competitions this season.
With that goal, Terry becomes the highest-scoring defender in Premier League history with 39 goals in the competition. What a player he's been for the Blues.
Liverpool look for a quick response through Coutinho, but the Brazilian's effort is deflected wide after he did well to work a yard of space about 20 yards out.
Listed as an attacker, Loftus-Cheek is in fact playing a holding role alongside Mikel in the Chelsea midfield. He's looked fairly composed so far and made some crunching tackles already.
It was Fabregas's corner that Terry headed home, making it 18 assists for the former this term. That's more than he's ever managed in a Premier League season and since the start of last season in La Liga, he has more assists (31) than anyone else in Europe's top five leagues. The next-best is former teammate Lionel Messi on 29.
SIDE-NETTING! It's not often you see Ivanovic look silly, but he just let Johnson go past him far too easily down the Liverpool left. The England full-back surged towards goal and tried to beat Courtois at his near post, but could only find the side-netting.
Coutinho lets fly again and this time manages to get it on target. It's straigh at Courtois, though, and the big Belgian makes a comfortable save with his feet.
Sterling is next to try his luck for Liverpool as he drags his shot wide from 20 yards. Since the early goal, Liverpool have had the better of the play, but Chelsea will be happy for them to continue taking speculative efforts from long range.
Liverpool fans, look away now!
Sterling is furious with referee Marriner as he feels that he was tugged over by Fabregas, who has been booked remember. That sort of offence often results in a booking, but Fabregas has got away with it.
BOOKING! Lallana is the first Liverpool player to be cautioned after a lunge on Ivanovic. Some might argue it was a fair tackle, but it was a little from behind and the way Ivanovic, in trademark fashion, threw himself and recoiled gave Marriner little choice but to produce a yellow card.
Courtois makes a good stop to keep out Lambert, but the former Southampton man was just offside anyway. Liverpool have more than matched Chelsea since conceding, but it will be extremely difficult for them to win from here. Chelsea have only conceded more than one once at home in the league this season and that day in September they beat Swansea City 4-2.
Fabregas gets to the byline left of the goal, but his cutback somehow misses everyone in the middle. Moments later Hazard feels that he should have won a corner, but Marriner points for a goal kick.
BOOKING! Skrtel hauls over Remy, becoming the second visitors to be cautioned by Mr Marriner.
SHOT! With Loftus-Cheek playing in a deeper role, Fabregas is enjoying being able to get forward more. He again causes Liverpool problems by surging down the right and unleashing a powerful drive from a tight angle that Mignolet just about manages to keep out.
BOOKING! Another Liverpool yellow card and this one is a little harsh. Lambert was chasing a long ball and appeared to slip a little to collide with Courtois just as the ball was running out of play. Marriner didn't like it and got out his notepad for the fourth time in under half an hour.
Dear oh dear! Mignolet has had a couple of dodgy moments already and he's just gifted Chelsea a corner by inadvertently punching Fabregas's inswinging delivery behind him, instead of away from harm.
Liverpool's strikers have struggled all season long and one of those is Daniel Sturridge, who has just Instagrammed the below picture saying that he is watching the match while resting his injured hip in bed.
SAVE! Liverpool almost score a bizarre goal as Sterling's attempted cutback ricochets off both Ivanovic and Cahill to divert it towards goal. It looks like it was sneaking inside the near post and Courtois does well to react and palm it away.
BOOKING! Luis is robbed of the ball by Ibe and has to haul over the Liverpool youngster. Easy decision for Marriner.
CHELSEA SUB: Both teams have now made all three of their substitutions as Juan Cuadrado replaces Loic Remy for the home side.
His game is over, but here's Gerrard stooping to head home the Reds' equaliser a minute or so before half time.
As Barney mentions below, Liverpool will see their top-four hopes extinguised if they fail to find a late winner here. A draw will also guarantee Arsenal's place in the Champions League yet again.
CLOSE! Coutinho's snapshot from 22 yards is deflected and wrongfoots Courtois. It seemed, for a brief moment, that the ball would trickle over the line, but all the pace was taken off it and Courtois was able to adjust and clutch the ball to his chest.
SHOT! Liverpool looking the more likely to nick a late winner as Henderson's volley from the edge of the area bobbles wide. Replays show that Terry got a crucial deflection, but it wasn't spotted by the officials. Goal kick.
The fourth official indicates that there will be FOUR minutes of added time.
Brilliant skill by Ibe to get away from Luis and Willian, but next up on the gauntlet to goal is Terry, who watches the ball and makes a fine tackle in the area.
"Champions, champions, ole, ole, ole!" sing the Chelsea fans as full time approaches.
Last chance for Liverpool ends in the side-netting as Sterling beats Cuadrado and dinks a ball to the back post where Can fires wide.
FULL-TIME: CHELSEA 1-1 LIVERPOOL
Newly-crowned Premier League champions Chelsea draw 1-1 at home to Liverpool to preserve their unbeaten home reocrd in the league. The two captains scored the goals, with Gerrard cancelling out Terry's early opener.
For Liverpool, their hopes of retaining their place in the Champions League come to an end as they are now six points behind Man United and have a much lower goal difference.
Click here to see the latest Premier League table after today's two games. Champions Chelsea are 11 points clear at the top, while fifth-placed Liverpool are almost certain to finish in the Europa League places as they are five points clear of seventh-placed Southampton with just two games of the season remaining.
Aaaaaaaaanyway, that's us done on this commentary. Thanks for joining SM this afternoon. Look out for reaction aplenty from Stamford Bridge as well as match analysis and player ratings to come in the next hour or so. From myself and Barney, it's good evening! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.
