On paper this is one of the three or four most difficult fixtures we’ll have to play this season. In reality though it was pretty easy. It never felt in doubt to me.
Ok, the sending off just before half time helped massively, and Alisson needed to save a penalty, but this was comfortable. We had another couple of gears to go to if we needed them. We didn’t need them though.
I thought Chelsea were shite but to some extent that’s to be expected. It’s a good time to play any team that’s trying to bed in new players (although it was only two, its not like they had a whole new team out there) as there’s basically been no pre-season to speak of. Chelsea were disjointed but they weren’t helped by Lampard’s insistence on playing out from the back and inviting pressure, especially in the second half when they were a man down.
They didn’t do much even when they had eleven men. We penned them back and the only time they posed any threat was with the occasional counter attack. Even then Fabinho usually just snuffed it out with the minimum of fuss.
He was terrific, which strangely seems to have taken some people by surprise. This isn’t anything new. He’s been great any time he’s played centre back and now that we have so many midfield options he should be regarded as a genuine option to play at the back if needed.
And he will be needed, because ol’ Big Bird is injured yet again. So frustrating that. I think he’s great. I’d even go as far as to say that other than Van Dijk he’s probably the best centre back in the Premier League. He’s certainly the most under-rated, but then that’s probably because he misses so much playing time that no-one outside of ourselves would be able to pick him out of a line up.
Matip is absolute quality but he’s got those same cheese string muscles that Sturridge and Lallana had, and chances are his career with us is going to end up going the same way. It’s a real shame, but thankfully we’ve got Fabinho who can just step in and perform like this.
Joe was missing as well but his injury is less serious and he’s not as unreliable as Matip. His injury issues have been more bad luck that anything else and he's generally been available for most of the last year or two. I understand why plenty of Reds would like to see us add another centre back but I probably wouldn’t do it because what happens when all four are available? You’ll have one who can’t even make the bench, and that’s going to cause problems. So for now I’d stick with the three we have plus Fabinho. That’s a discussion for another time and place though really.
Back to the game. As I said, Chelsea barely laid a glove on us because their only outlet seemed to be trying to get the limited Werner in on the counter, only any time he ran at Fabinho he got nowhere. Actually there was one time he got away but only because he tried to crudely run straight through him and the ball fortuitously bounced back off Fabinho’s face into his path before he shot wide.
This game showed exactly why I never wanted us to sign him and why I spent months saying it in the diary. He’s a bull in a china shop and has zero guile at all. All he can do is run and shoot, which is fine when you’re playing on the break all the time, but that represents of 5% of our game these days. We rarely have that luxury.
Imagine this fucker trying to play intricate little one twos around the box against a packed defence. He can’t do it. May as well ask him to tie his shoelaces while wearing boxing gloves. He's great at what he does but what he does wouldn't benefit us. The man has no finesse at all. Chelsea are welcome to him at that price.
For all our dominance of the ball though we didn’t exactly create much either. There were some nearly moments but it was difficult as all Chelsea seemed to want to do was defend. Two hundred and odd million quid spent, mostly on attackers, and they’re sat back like Crystal fucking Palace.
Eventually we were always going to find a way through and we would have done just before half time had Christensen not rugby tackled Sadio as he ran onto Hendo’s brilliant ball. Initially I wondered if Kepa would have gotten there first so I could understand why Paul Tierney didn’t immediately reach for the red card.
It all happened so quickly in real time. It was obviously a foul but the keeper arrived on the scene to clear the ball as Mané was hitting the deck. It’s only when you see the replay that it becomes glaringly obvious that but for the foul Mané would have taken it in stride and Kepa would have been stranded in no mans land. After looking at the pitch side monitor Tierney correctly upgraded the yellow card to a red. This is how VAR is supposed to work. Last season was a farce but it’s been better so far.
So with Chelsea down to ten I expected the second half to go well for us and it did. It was one way traffic, aided in no small part by Lampard’s bizarre insistence on trying to play out from the back. Once they went down to ten the first thing he should have done is put Giroud on to give them a focal point to get the ball up the pitch and away from their own goal.
He didn’t though. Every time they had a goal kick they’d take it short and we’d swarm all over them. I lost count of the amount of times they ended up knocking it out for a throw in under pressure. Our lads probably couldn’t believe their luck.
Thiago was brought on at the break and it didn’t take long for us to break the deadlock. What a fucking goal it was too. Just beautiful play between the front three. Absolutely gorgeous football.
Bobby played it to Mo and then went for the return ball which was perfectly delivered to him. He then stood the ball up for Sadio to steal in front of his marker and plant a great header into the corner. Just a fantastic goal and really encouraging to see the front three combine like that.
Five goals in two games for the strikers now. It’s a small sample size but hopefully it hints at a return to the crazy, prolific numbers we saw from them a few years ago. The sooner Firmino gets among the goals again the better. He had one first half opportunity when Salah picked him out, but it was defended well by Christiansen who blocked Bobby’s close range effort for a corner.
The second goal came as a direct result of Lampard’s insistence on his team passing the ball around in dangerous areas. Sadio had given the ball away and was visibly annoyed with himself before he went chasing to try and win it back. Kepa didn’t even really dawdle on it either. He took a touch and then tried to play a pass but Mané was on him so quickly to intercept it and then score.
Kepa is an easy target because he’s shite but that goal is as much on Lampard as it is him and I thought it was cowardly of Lampard to not shoulder some of the blame himself afterwards instead of throwing his under-fire keeper under the bus. A manager worth his salt would have said “I want us to play like that and we know the risks so if you want to blame anyone for that, blame me”. Not Fat Frank though. The snide. Deflect doubts about himself onto a player who is a convenient scapegoat.
Some of the shit he came out with afterwards was embarrassing. I cringed all the way through his post match interview, which was full of passive aggressiveness and was more defensive than his tactical approach to the game. He even had the gall to suggest it wasn’t a clear red card! Tit.
I’d have been fuming at that second half if I was a Chelsea fan. What was the point in all that fucking around at the back? Did he think anything good could happen by having Kepa playing one twos with his centre backs all day? Seriously, what was his end game there? Did he think they were going to go “bang bang bang” beat our press and go the length of the field and score?
Talk about naive. They never got close to playing through us all day, even when they had ten. Kepa will take all the heat as usual but this moonfaced turd Lampard is a complete fraud. Watching this game removed any doubt about that. I could hardly believe what I was seeing, he played right into our hands.
You know what this game reminded me of? Arsenal at Anfield last year. They played exactly the same way. Needlessly passing it around in their own six yard box and inviting trouble.
If we’d wanted to and really pushed for it, we’d have put five or six past them easily. As I say, we had other gears to go up to if needed and if they’d converted the penalty then I’m sure we would have. They didn’t convert the penalty though and for that I’m claiming a double assist.
I told you a few weeks ago when I ripped Alisson for his inability to save pens that you could thank me in a few weeks when he saved one. Not only that, but in this week’s round up I jinxed Jorginho by calling him the best penalty taker around and commenting that he never looks like missing. So yeah, double whammy from me there. Classic reverse jinxing. I'm on a roll with this shit. I got Trent scoring free-kicks again too, don't forget.
I thought the penalty was soft but I'd have demanded it at the other end. Thiago didn’t mean to catch him and in truth he barely did, but there was just enough contact to knock Werner off balance and impact his shot, so I’m not going to complain about it.
It would have been annoying as fuck to not keep a clean sheet though. Other than the pen I think they only had one other shot, which was well saved by Alisson shortly after the penalty stop.
We didn’t exactly force Kepa into a load of saves either. Wijnaldum and Van Dijk both should have scored and Salah had a great turn and shot near the end. Sadio had one from distance well saved too after it took a big deflection.
Generally though we had loads of promising situations but too often they didn’t amount to much of anything and most of the half was spent just controlling the game and passing it around, making Chelsea run.
Milner was brought on for Keita (very quiet I thought) and Minamino was given a late run out for Firmino, but it was another substitute that we all wanted to see.
It was great that we were treated to Thiago for 45 minutes wasn’t it? It was a shame Hendo had to make way for him as - along with Fabinho - the skipper had been our best player to that point. With most new signings it takes a few months for them to get up to speed but there are exceptions to that and Thiago was always going to be just that. You could just drop him into any team and he’d just do his thing.
That’s not to say he is fully adjusted and familiar with how we play, but he’s such a clever, talented footballer it doesn’t matter. He’ll get better when he has more familiarity with how we play and the strengths and weaknesses of his team-mates, but this isn’t a Fabinho or Ox type situation where he needs to sit for a few months to learn how we do it.
I mean, 89 touches in one half! Kinell. He had the fourth most touches of anyone on the pitch and more than anyone in the Chelsea team. We can see already what he’s going to do. He’ll just completely dominate the ball and allow us to control games even more than we do already. There were a couple of really quick passes into the front lads too that nobody else would have played. It’s going to be fun watching him.
The one negative was the penalty he gave away but I put that down to him trying a little too hard to impress. He knows everyone in our team works like fucking Trojans on quadruple overtime pay and he was trying to show that he’s up for that too.
So two wins from two and one of our most difficult looking fixtures negotiated. Mo and Sadio are among the goals, we’ve got a couple of quality new signings on board and things are looking good.
Star man is a toss up between Fabinho and Mané. I’m going with Sadio because it’s hard to overlook two goals and forcing a decisive red card, but Fabinho ran him awfully close.
We’ve got a cup match next so that’s a chance for Klopp to rest all of his starters and bring in the back ups. Even the second choice line up looks strong as fuck really. The squad now is ridiculous, as strong as we’ve ever had. Even getting on the bench is quite the achievement these days.
I mean fucking hell, look at the players who weren’t in the 18 man squad for this one. Shaqiri, Matip, Ox, Gomez, Williams, Brewster, Jota, Elliott. I’ve probably forgotten one or two as well. Wilson too. See, I forgot him. It’s mad.
We’ll run away with the league again this year. Hopefully Wolves can take care of City tomorrow and ensure they start their season on a downer. If City fall behind us early again they’ll give up like they did last year. And other than them who is there to worry about?
Get in front and turn the screw on the bastards again, Redmen!
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Fabinho, Van Dijk, Robertson; Henderson (Thiago), Wijnaldum, Keita (Milner); Salah, Firmino (Minaccino), Mané:
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