Chelsea vs Liverpool: Match Report
In an opening game week where we saw Newcastle hammer 5 past Aston Villa, Brighton cruise to victory against Luton Town and Man City beat newly promoted Burnley, the big game was Chelsea vs Liverpool. Pochettino vs Klopp. In an intriguing game where we saw a lot of quality all over the pitch, we’ll take a deeper look into how this game panned out.
We saw Chelsea set up with two wingbacks which is no surprise given their personnel and a new centre-back trio featuring Colwill and Disasi alongside Silva. They had a front three of Jackson, Sterling and Chukwuemka with Enzo and Gallagher behind.
On the other side, we had Liverpool where Trent inverted to join MacAllister as the sitting midfielders, with Robertson joining Konate and Van Dijk to form a back three. They had a front four of Salah, Jota, Diaz and Gakpo.
Liverpool were on top for the first 25 minutes and were finding a lot of space in the wide areas, specifically through Diaz and Salah who were getting in behind Chilwell and James. Before the goal came, Salah had a couple of chances, including hitting the crossbar with his weaker right foot. He managed to find an assist not long after, coming in from the right flank and running at Colwill before threading the ball through to Diaz to finish off the move and put The Reds ahead. The game was beginning to open up, with Trent receiving the ball and finding Salah who used a burst of pace to get past the Chelsea backline and put the ball past Sanchez in the Chelsea goal. Unfortunately for them, it was offside.
This is when Chelsea began to embed themselves in the game. Sterling was picking up some great positions and the Chelsea defenders were able to play passes cutting through the midfield of Liverpool's midfield. Their combinations, specifically on the right flank, were developing really nicely with James, Sterling, and Enzo. The Argentinian was playing most of the game in an advanced position, leaving Gallagher in the defensive midfield position, a role that he does need to grow into as at times he did look a little weak. A cross in by James is headed out before Chilwell gets a really important header looping it into a dangerous area right in front of the keeper. Axel Disasi was the first man on the scene and slots it home for a goal on his debut. Chelsea continued to attack from the kick-off and a lovely ball was played through to Chilwell who took it around Alisson before putting it in the back of the net. This too was seen to be offside. The momentum however was still with Chelsea.
Throughout the game the wingbacks of Chelsea were really impressive, getting on the ball a lot and playing really high up the pitch to pin Liverpool back. It also aided them when playing out from the back, keeping wide and utilising the whole width of the pitch. It meant that they were always providing the back three with an option before popping it back into midfield and beginning their attacking phase.
In the end, it was Chelsea that created the better chances. Nicholas Jackson had a couple of great opportunities to seal the deal for The Blues, but one effort was fired over the bar - when it should have been placed on target. The other was smothered by Alisson, maybe the best one-on-one keeper in the world, other than that he looked really promising as Chelsea’s new number 9. In the second half, Chilwell also had a big chance that he failed to convert.
Overall, both teams looked far better than what they did last year and there were a lot of good performances all over the pitch. For Liverpool, Salah and Diaz looked electric every time they picked up the ball, Konate and Van Dijk were under a lot of pressure but dealt with it really well and Szoboszlai looked very fun and exciting in a Liverpool shirt. For Chelsea the wingbacks were both incredible, with Enzo and Sterling having great games too, there will be even more to come from this Chelsea side once their frontline all start firing. On the other hand, there were some weaknesses on both sides. Liverpool’s midfield lacked any balance in the game with Mac Allister not being defensively minded, letting players run off the back of him. Trent also had a very quiet game, Konate had to cover for him numerous times on the right side of the defence and when he pushed up into midfield he had little to no impact on the game. Colwill looked as if he was intimated by Mo Salah, but who wouldn’t be? Once Liverpool got past the midfield of Chelsea and were through on the back three it always felt like a threat that Liverpool would capitalise on. Gallagher as previously mentioned, didn’t have the strongest game as the lone defensive midfielder. Now that Caicedo has been signed for a British record transfer fee, it looks imminent that he will be replacing Gallagher in that side. Jackson was able to get into some good areas, his finishing just let him down on the odd occasion. Both teams still have some work to do, specifically in the midfield, but it was a bright start to the campaign for both teams in a hard-fought battle at the Bridge.
