That was really tough. We were hanging on and we didn’t play particularly well, but this is probably one of the three or four most difficult fixtures on the calendar and we’ve come away with three points. Psychologically that’s huge, especially given that City had won 8-0 the day before.
Given how dominant both us and City are now, there are only a handful of fixtures you look at and think “that could be a tough one”. Chelsea away is right up there and City will have been hoping that we slipped up in this one. For us to come through it - especially given how hairy it was in the last half an hour - feels like a real hurdle we’ve overcome.
Imagine if we’d drawn or lost this game after City had won 8-0. It would have cancelled out the buzz from last weekend when they lost at Norwich and we went five points clear. City bounced back and sent a message, and we went and won at Chelsea to let them know they can shove their message up their financial doping arse.
Much had been made about our recent record away at fellow top six clubs, but these are the toughest games any team has. You’re not going to be taking maximum points from trips to the best teams in the country. The key to success is winning the games you’re supposed to win. Away games at the top six do not really come into that category.
We can’t “expect” to win at Chelsea, so the fact we have done puts us ahead of the curve. Just as the fact City lost at Norwich puts them behind it. Both teams are so far ahead of everyone else that there are only a handful of games that they shouldn’t “expect” to win. Both games against each other, Spurs away, Chelsea away and probably Leicester away are games where a draw would probably be seen as acceptable. Every other game is one that both ourselves and City ‘should’ win. So far we’re doing that and they aren’t, which is why currently we lead by five points.
So winning away at Chelsea is great, not least because it came after such a tough away fixture in midweek. Even if we’d won in Naples this would have been tough, but coming off a loss in such disappointing circumstances, to go to Chelsea and win is a terrific achievement from the lads.
The way we finished the game certainly suggests to me that the midweek trip to Italy had a bit of an impact on the legs. Ten of the starting eleven at Chelsea had played in midweek, so it’s probably not a co-incidence that our level dropped in the last half an hour. We couldn’t keep the ball and we were wasteful with some good counter attacking opportunities.
What we saw once more though was that even when these lads are not at their best, even when they’re under the cosh and the pressure is on, they seem to be able to just get the job done. Chelsea had the bit between their teeth after they got back to 2-1 and they were really pushing for that equaliser. They were picking up every second ball and we were hanging on, but they only created two chances after that and missed the target with both.
We defended pretty well in those closing stages and while much of our focus is naturally on our own performance and how we struggled in the second half, I don’t think we should overlook just how difficult it is to win at Chelsea and what a dangerous side they still are.
They aren’t title contenders anymore and they’ll finish a long way behind us come May, but on their day they can beat anyone as they still have some top players. They had Pulisic and Pedro on the bench, and Giroud couldn’t even make their match day squad. Chelsea are still capable and I thought they played well.
The thing is though, we’re so good now that for anyone to beat us they’re going to have to play out of their skin. We’ve played Chelsea twice this season and we’ve had their best effort in both games. They’ve probably played better in those two games than they have in any other. Yet they didn't win either because it’s fucking hard getting anything against us.
Even Napoli the other night. They got the win (fortuitously) but it took so much out of them. They were cramping up with 15 minutes to go because of the sheer effort they had to put in to stay with us. Beating Liverpool takes a herculean effort for most teams. That’s how far we’ve come in such a short space of time.
We could have made life much easier for ourselves in this one if we’d scored the third goal when we were well on top at the start of the second half. We were flying in that spell but Chelsea weathered the storm and after that it became difficult.
Even in the first half though Chelsea posed a threat. We scored twice from set-pieces but I didn’t think we dominated the half or anything and the score flattered us. Chelsea paid the price for conceding two cheap free-kicks and then not defending them properly.
The first one was a clumsy challenge by Christensen on Mané, who had cleverly made sure he got in front of the defender and forced him to make the foul.
It was in a great position but free-kick specialists generally prefer to be five or six yards further out than this. Initially it looked like Henderson was pulling rank, but thankfully common sense prevailed. No-one wants to see Hendo on free-kicks. Credit to Trent, not only for the brilliant strike but also for having the presence of mind to ask Mo to roll it to him to give him a better angle. He’s a quick thinking bastard is Trent.
The strike though... fucking hell. The keeper is actually stood in that corner of the goal but it was past him before he could even move. Just a brilliant hit, perfectly placed and full of power. Not sure what the weird celebration was all about though. I was a bit disappointed he didn’t just run to the bench and let Gomez know who the fucking daddy is. Joe had wiped the floor with Trent in a free-kick contest a couple of weeks back and had understandably rubbed his nose in it, but this was Trent re-marking his territory.
Chelsea almost levelled when Abraham got in behind, but Adrian stood up well and made a great save. I thought it was offside but replays showed that Trent was a yard behind everyone else and played Abraham on. Adrian is fucking boss isn’t he? He’s got the makings of a proper cult hero. He’s made some key saves for us and other than that one mad moment at Southampton, we’ve not really suffered from not having Alisson
It’s a good job he was on his game because defensively we were getting caught out quite a bit. Chelsea thought they’d equalised through Azpilicueta but VAR came to our rescue. I didn’t suspect any offside at the time and just thought it was a goal. A scrappy, fortunate goal that we could feel aggrieved about, but a goal nonetheless.
It was a lucky rebound of Fabinho that let Willian in, and even though Adrian had made another brilliant save the ball ended up in the net via another spawn rebound from Fabinho’s challenge. Then we saw there was a VAR check for something in the build up. I was watching the game with a mate who’s a Chelsea fan, and at this point I went all Clive Tyldesley in Istanbul: “Hello! Hello! Here we go.”
The replay showed Mount was offside and we were out of jail. There’s been a lot of crysarsing about it, but there’s no miscarriage of justice here. It was the correct decision and if the linesman had flagged there’d have been no discussion over it. Because the linesman didn’t flag (either because he thought it was onside or because he felt it was so close it was best to let the video decide) all the discussion is over VAR once again.
As I'm sure you all know by now, I hate VAR and I’d scrap it if I could. There are so many things wrong with it I wouldn’t know where to begin complaining, but on a list of shit things about VAR the offside stuff is pretty low down.
In some respects it’s almost like goal-line technology. It’s not quite as black and white as that as there are occasional areas of grey (second phases of play and restarts and other such shit), but a lot of the time it’s either offside or it isn’t and the technology can determine that better than the naked eye.
And the bottom line here is that Mount WAS offside. There’s no doubt about that. People seem to be upset that he was only a little bit offside and if you take VAR out of it then yeah, you’d feel hard done by because it’s such a marginal decision. But this is what the video is for. If you’re using the video then whether it’s an inch or a foot it’s the same outcome.
If you’re using technology then it becomes much more objective and much less subjective. Now, there is an argument to be had about how accurate it actually is in determining the exact moment a pass is played, but as things stand with how the technology is right now, Mount was offside and the correct decision was made, and no amount of crying from Martin Tyler changes that.
Seriously, what a fucking prick that fella is. His commentary of this game was what you’d expect when England are playing in a World Cup game. Chelsea were obviously England in that scenario. We score and he sounds gutted, grudgingly admitting the free-kick was “wonderful”. Chelsea score and he’s made up, until VAR get’s involved and he’s almost crying into the mic “it’s not going to count…. it’s not… going.. to count”. He’s actually worse than Motson.
The disallowed goal was fucking huge though. Just as it was in the Spurs / Leicester game the day before. It’s a double whammy effect, The team that thinks they’ve scored have it ripped away from them and it’s almost like conceding a goal. For the team that benefits it’s like scoring.
We got a lift from it and I thought Chelsea looked like their heads had gone for a bit afterwards. We took advantage by making it 2-0. Gini lobbed the ball over Azpliciueta who impeded him. Chelsea didn’t think it was a foul because there was nowhere for the full back to go. I’d agree with that if he hadn’t put his hands up and hit Wijnaldum in the throat. It was a foul.
The ball was rolled to Robbo who whipped in a good ball onto the head of Bobby. 2-0 just like that. Terrible marking from Chelsea, and in particular Alonso. Chelsea fans seem to hate him these days. He’s an awful defender like, but he is a big threat going forward. Much of what Chelsea did in the second half came through him and I don’t think we handled it particularly well.
Time and again they were looking for that long switch of play out to Alonso and usually they found him. Salah was just letting him which gave Hendo a lot of space to cover. Normally I’m ok with that because Mo just hanging around in the space vacated by the full back usually leads to some devastating counter-attacks. The problem comes when he’s playing as badly as he was in this one. He was shite, and given the lack of attacking quality he provided we may as well just have had someone who could have shut down Alonso.
Klopp did change that eventually, but he waited until stoppage time to do it when he brought Gomez on and went five at the back. Prior to that we’d seen Milner replace the injured Mané and Lallana came on for Hendo. Strange one that. Ox would have seemed the more likely choice but Klopp probably felt we needed to keep the ball better so went with Lallana.
None of the subs helped us. We kept giving the ball away and inviting Chelsea to come at us. And they did. Kante got them back into it with a terrific solo effort that gave Adrian no chance. Fabinho should have done better and just looked really heavy legged as the spritely little Kante just turned away from him effortlessly. He’s a fucking great player him though. Other than our own lads, I’d say that along with De Bruyne he’s the best player in the league.
The goal gave Chelsea renewed hope and they dominated after that. Batshuayi put a free header wide and Mount blasted over the bar from a good position. Adrian made another great save to deny Alonso but he was offside anyway. Our defending was a concern though. There seems to be some miscommunication between the two centre backs at times. Bathsuayi should never have been in that much space, and Mount’s opportunity came because Matip let him run while Virgil was tracking another runner, meaning he played Mount onside.
We’ve seen quite a lot of these little breakdowns already this season and we’re struggling to keep clean sheets. It needs cleaning up, but equally I think it’s worth pointing out that we’ve still got the best defensive record in the league so it’s not that bad.
We know how to see games out now and the lack of game management appears to be a thing of the past. I noticed a few times late on that we played on for a second or two after the whistle just to cause a little delay in Chelsea restarting. Robbo did it two or three times where the ref had blown for a Chelsea free-kick or throw and he just carried on playing long enough to get the ball away but not long enough to get a booking.
The ref was a bit of a tit though wasn’t he? Trent was booked for time wasting even though he didn’t take any longer than you’d see for any standard throw in. The ref was influenced by the crowd, who were kicking off any time Adrian didn’t take a goal kick within a couple of seconds of the ball going out. The Chelsea fans were at their odious worst throughout. Sign On, Liverpool Slums, Demba Ba… and that was inside the first five minutes.
Funny when they unveiled a big Eden Hazard banner though only to admit afterwards it was a mistake. Apparently the club gave the fans the wrong banner, but by the time they realised it had been unfurled and it was too late to do anything. That might just be the most Chelsea thing ever. Actually no, the most Chelsea thing ever was when they shamelessly ripped off our Torres flag, complete with Shakily Gates!
Anyway, while we were understandably in no hurry, there was no genuine time wasting going on. Michael Oliver was just playing to the galleries there. Of course Martin Tyler was livid about it and was even trying to get Hendo red carded for putting his hands on an official. Laughable. Players do that all the time, especially captains. He put his arm around the ref while he was listening to him. He didn’t give it the Paolo Di Canio and knock him on his arse. Fucking Tyler, what a twat.
So we held on for the win and you could see in the reactions of Klopp and the players on the pitch at the end that they knew this was a big one. It was a tough one but only because we didn’t kill them off when we could have. The way we started the second half was great, we were all over them and only a brilliant save from Kepa prevented Bobby making it 3-0 and ending the game.
We had other moments too but we were just wasteful. Mané wasn’t himself and Salah looked like he was trying too hard to stick it to his old team. If they’d been at it we’d have won easily, but then I feel like that every game. If they click, we’ll smash any team on the planet. My expectations of them are too high really, as they’re not going to run riot in every game they play.
The bottom line here is that we’ve won away at Chelsea and that puts pressure on City to do the same when they go there. We’ve come through a real test here and we’re still five points ahead. Now we just need to keep winning the ones we’re supposed to win and see where we are when we play City in November.
Star man is Robbo, just ahead of Adrian. I thought Fabinho was great too other than that one moment when Kante gave him the runaround, and Matip impressed again. I’m going with Robbo though, not least because of that driving run at the end that saw him go past four players, carry the ball 80 yards upfield and then win a free-kick that effectively allowed us to play out the rest of the game in Chelsea’s half. I fucking love Andy Robbo. What a hero.
Team: Adrian; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson (Lallana), Wijnaldum; Salah (Gomez), Firmino, Mané (Milner):
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