Antonio Conte might not have the perfect conditions in which to defend his Premier League title but he knows very well that his is a team that will so often find a way, and so it proved once again with an equaliser from Willian just when Liverpool were on the brink of a statement victory.
Whether the Brazilian substitute meant that his chip from the right side of the area was intended to float over the head of Simon Mignolet and give his team the equaliser they had sought was a different matter but they got there in the end. Up against a Liverpool side driven onwards by the exceptional Mohamed Salah, Conte’s team were five minutes from their first league defeat since Oct 14 when Willian struck.
A single point for Conte’s team means they lose ground on Manchester United, and probably leaders Manchester City too, but it could have been much worse. Against Salah there will be many defences this season who fail to stop the league leading goalscorer, as was the case for Chelsea when in the 65th minute he scored his tenth Premier League goal and looked like he might just have won the game for his team.
In that
respect he eclipsed even Eden Hazard who was Chelsea’s most dangerous
player for much of the first half and always looked like the man in a
blue shirt most likely to decide the game. But after the break it was
Salah who came into his own and his role as the key man at Liverpool,
even in the presence of Philippe Coutinho, grows ever stronger.
As for Jurgen Klopp it felt like an opportunity that was missed. On the pitch at the end of the game, the Liverpool manager could be seen reasoning with a clearly unhappy Sadio Mane who was an 89th minute substitute along with the returning Adam Lallana. The Senegalese striker had evidently wanted to be given a longer run out and was left waiting to come on for so long that by the time he had done so, the equaliser had been scored.
Conte was in front of his away fans celebrating at the end. His substitutions had worked for Chelsea, with Cesc Fabregas and Pedro making them a difficult side to handle and Willian scoring the goal, however unintended it might originally have been.
As for Jurgen Klopp it felt like an opportunity that was missed. On the pitch at the end of the game, the Liverpool manager could be seen reasoning with a clearly unhappy Sadio Mane who was an 89th minute substitute along with the returning Adam Lallana. The Senegalese striker had evidently wanted to be given a longer run out and was left waiting to come on for so long that by the time he had done so, the equaliser had been scored.
Conte was in front of his away fans celebrating at the end. His substitutions had worked for Chelsea, with Cesc Fabregas and Pedro making them a difficult side to handle and Willian scoring the goal, however unintended it might originally have been.
Klopp
selected Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Daniel Sturridge ahead of Sadio
Mane and Roberto Firmino. Conte went for the same XI that had won that
had beaten West Bromwich Albion away from home the previous weekend and
by the end of the first half it felt that Chelsea had only just had the
better of it.
At times it could have been boiled down to Mohamed Salah against Eden Hazard. They were at different ends of the pitch but they were the two players who seemed capable of forcing the opening. Until the very final minutes of the half, Chelsea looked in control. They kept possession better, they squeezed Liverpool backwards and sooner or later it seemed like Hazard would find a way, either for himself or a team-mate.
He jinked past Jordan Henderson once in midfield but his pass to Danny Drinkwater was just too long for the midfielder to reach ahead of Simon Mignolet. For the most part, Liverpool left Hazard to twist and turn in front of them, wary that a fractionally mistimed challenge would be to invite trouble against a player whose changes of speed and direction are so hard to read.
Coming in from the right side for Liverpool, Salah, against the club for whom he briefly played, demonstrated that he can go either side of a defender. He turned Gary Cahill once in the Chelsea area and Andreas Christensen got across to block the shot. In the last five minutes before the break Salah curled a left-foot shot just outside of Thibaut Courtois’ right-hand post. There was a brief appeal for a penalty when Hazard himself steered Salah off the ball in the Chelsea area but Michael Oliver rightly ignored it.
Out of possession, Conte’s formation switched to a five-man defence and Chelsea were very hard to break down before the break. The priority for Davide Zappacosta and Marcos Alonso was to help out against Salah and Philippe Coutinho and the Brazilian was only a passing influence on the first half.
Hazard and Salah were the preoccupation for the two defences they faced. Three minutes into the new half, Hazard went over on the edge of the Liverpool area, his ankle connecting with James Milner’s foot. The momentum of his fall suggested that he had waited for the contact and acted accordingly and again Oliver shook his head and waved the play on.
Zappacosta struck a low ball across the box before the hour that no-one got near to, and as the game passed the hour mark it was Liverpool who became the more adventurous. Salah was crowded out when he came into the area. There was a handball appeal against Gary Cahill but his arm was by his side and again Oliver declined.
At times it could have been boiled down to Mohamed Salah against Eden Hazard. They were at different ends of the pitch but they were the two players who seemed capable of forcing the opening. Until the very final minutes of the half, Chelsea looked in control. They kept possession better, they squeezed Liverpool backwards and sooner or later it seemed like Hazard would find a way, either for himself or a team-mate.
He jinked past Jordan Henderson once in midfield but his pass to Danny Drinkwater was just too long for the midfielder to reach ahead of Simon Mignolet. For the most part, Liverpool left Hazard to twist and turn in front of them, wary that a fractionally mistimed challenge would be to invite trouble against a player whose changes of speed and direction are so hard to read.
Coming in from the right side for Liverpool, Salah, against the club for whom he briefly played, demonstrated that he can go either side of a defender. He turned Gary Cahill once in the Chelsea area and Andreas Christensen got across to block the shot. In the last five minutes before the break Salah curled a left-foot shot just outside of Thibaut Courtois’ right-hand post. There was a brief appeal for a penalty when Hazard himself steered Salah off the ball in the Chelsea area but Michael Oliver rightly ignored it.
Out of possession, Conte’s formation switched to a five-man defence and Chelsea were very hard to break down before the break. The priority for Davide Zappacosta and Marcos Alonso was to help out against Salah and Philippe Coutinho and the Brazilian was only a passing influence on the first half.
Hazard and Salah were the preoccupation for the two defences they faced. Three minutes into the new half, Hazard went over on the edge of the Liverpool area, his ankle connecting with James Milner’s foot. The momentum of his fall suggested that he had waited for the contact and acted accordingly and again Oliver shook his head and waved the play on.
Zappacosta struck a low ball across the box before the hour that no-one got near to, and as the game passed the hour mark it was Liverpool who became the more adventurous. Salah was crowded out when he came into the area. There was a handball appeal against Gary Cahill but his arm was by his side and again Oliver declined.
The goal
came for Liverpool when at last Coutinho forced the issue and the fruit
of his labour was grasped by Salah. The Brazilian drove into the box and
the ball broke away from him, fatally pushed into the path of
Oxlade-Chamberlain by Tiemoue Bakayoko’s wayward touch. The Englishman
who rejected Chelsea prodded the ball forward, and the Egyptian rejected
by Chelsea did the rest, beating Courtois from close range.
It was a goal that revealed Liverpool to be that much sharper than their opposition and no-one more so than Salah, with his tenth league goal of the season. He declined to celebrate wildly in front of the Kop but that felt unrelated to his brief spell at Chelsea. It was surely more to do with the terrorist attack on a mosque in Sinai this week.
In the moments after the goal Klopp substituted Sturridge, moved Salah to a central position and brought Georginio Wijnaldum into midfield. Conte quickly introduced Cesc Fabregas and then Pedro. Drinkwater and Bakayoko, both of whom had indifferent games, made way.
Willian only played the last seven minutes plus injury time, a replacement for Zappacosta but his goal was perfectly placed, what looked like a cross to the back post that caught Mignolet wrong-footed. There was one more good save from Courtois required, this one again from Salah, and Chelsea had got the point.
It was a goal that revealed Liverpool to be that much sharper than their opposition and no-one more so than Salah, with his tenth league goal of the season. He declined to celebrate wildly in front of the Kop but that felt unrelated to his brief spell at Chelsea. It was surely more to do with the terrorist attack on a mosque in Sinai this week.
In the moments after the goal Klopp substituted Sturridge, moved Salah to a central position and brought Georginio Wijnaldum into midfield. Conte quickly introduced Cesc Fabregas and then Pedro. Drinkwater and Bakayoko, both of whom had indifferent games, made way.
Willian only played the last seven minutes plus injury time, a replacement for Zappacosta but his goal was perfectly placed, what looked like a cross to the back post that caught Mignolet wrong-footed. There was one more good save from Courtois required, this one again from Salah, and Chelsea had got the point.
Liverpool 1 Chelsea 1: Willian's late goal denies Jurgen Klopp's men
Reviewed by Unknown
on
November 25, 2017
Rating:
Reviewed by Unknown
on
November 25, 2017
Rating:
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