London: This should be the best game of the season. It was pulsating, fizzing and an absolute classic. In a game played at a frenzied pace, neither side was able to find the winning goal after each had scored twice in the first half. The clash between the second and third teams on the Premier League table lived fully up to expectations.
Chelsea went into the game without Romelu Lukaku. It was a big talking point of the day. It was a major decision to drop their £97.5m striker for disciplinary reasons as he had given an unauthorised, damaging interview with Sky Sport Italia, claiming that he was unhappy at Chelsea playing under manager Thomas Tuchel.
Tuchel said: “First we have to understand what he said and why he said it. He is our player, there is always a way back (into the team) and we’ll clear things behind closed doors. This is not to be discussed. I take decisions for the team. I have players to listen to and hear their opinion and then I take my decisions. It is not a personal thing for me to decide because of my belief.”
He added: “We have a squad to protect with strong beliefs and strong values. It is not the first time an interview out there causes some noise nobody needs. But we can handle it. I don’t feel personally angry. On Saturday, there were new statements and it got too big, too much noise, and we lost totally the focus of the match. We need to speak with him, read the full interview and stay calm and not lose our heads.”
The much anticipated, action packed match produced four wonderful goals. There was controversy at the start when after just six seconds, Chelsea’s captain, Cesar Azpilicueta was elbowed in the face by Sadio Mane. The was apparently a sending-off foul and Mane was only shown the yellow card.
Liverpool opened the scoring in the 9th minute, a minute after Christian Pulisic had missed a golden chance to give Chelsea the lead when he failed to round the goalkeeper to score. Liverpool scored after a misjudged header by Trevoh Chalobah sent the ball to Mane who rounded Edouard Mendy to slot the ball home.
Liverpool doubled the lead 17 minutes later when Trent Alexander-Arnold passed to Mohamad Salah who beat Marcos Alonso and then Mendy with a wonderful finish from an acute angle at the edge of the six-yard box.
Then came two goals in a space of three minutes from the Home side. Three minutes before half time, Caoimhin Kelleher punched away a free-kick which sent the ball to Mateo Kovacic whose superb right-foot volley from 23 yards went in off the right post.
Just as the game went into the first minute of the first half’s added time, Chelsea drew level. Antonio Rudiger’s long passes went to N’Golo Kante who found Pulisic and the midfielder’s lofted shot went into the roof of the net. Despite the goalless second half the intensity remained throughout breathless encounter.
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