A warm Sunday afternoon in West London saw a ‘Super Mature’ Liverpool side go past Frank Lampard’s Blues courtesy of an early second half brace by Senegalese international Sadio Mane.
The 2-0 defeat against the defending champions was a reality check for the Blues even after spending handsomely in the Transfer Market.
Chelsea started defensively from the first whistle itself. They relied on counter attacks and it did work out a few times but their attacking swagger was totally missing. The turning point of the game came in just before the halftime when Christensen bought down Sadio Mane and was given his marching orders.
The 2nd half saw Liverpool’s latest recruit Thiago Alcantara coming on as an substitute for Skipper Jordan Henderson.
5 minutes into the second half and boom, the visitors took the lead when Liverpool’s No. 10 broke the deadlock and scored one past Kepa Arrizabalaga. While Liverpool’s quality crafted their opener, their second was handed to them as a gift from the Spanish Goalkeeper.
Thiago made a mistake and fouled Timo Werner inside Penalty box and Jorginho was called up to take the spot kick. But, Alisson had Thiago covered and did not let the Blues spoil the Spaniard’s debut. The Brazilian Wall denied the Italian and managed to register his first clean sheet of the season.
Luck was on Liverpool’s side as Chelsea were without new signings Thiago Silva, Ben Chilwell and Hakim Ziyech who could have made the difference. Christian Pulisic is out injured. Goalkeeper Edouard Mendy isn’t officially registered as a Chelsea player.
All of that led to an extremely defensive and tentative display from Lampard’s side. Kai Havertz struggled out wide once again, while the defensive issues remain for Chelsea as Kepa had a nightmare on the red card situation and for the second goal.