It had been tempting to look at Thomas Tuchel’s decision to remove Romelu Lukaku from the Chelsea squad after that interview. But it was a measure of what followed for 90 pulsing minutes that the club’s record signing, and all the drama around it, came to feel like a footnote.
Tuchel said he did not select Lukaku because his situation had been a major distraction on the eve of the game, with him saying he was unhappy at the club and questioning the manager’s system. It is not the first time that Chelsea managed quite well without him.
During an exciting first half, he rallied from two goals against, restoring parity through a marvelous goal from Mateo Kovacic and a neat shot from Christian Pulisic. When Chelsea can summon this kind of surge, they poke fun at their recent Premier League form, which now shows just four wins out of nine.
Liverpool fully participated in an entertaining show, with goals from Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah; the former broke a nine-game scoring drought, the latter continued with his fiery touch. Salah’s goal was the latest gem in his collection and the way he froze Marcos Alonso with a hip movement to open the opportunity from a tight angle was one of the game’s many memorable moments.
Mane and Salah are now leaving for the African Cup of Nations and so is Chelsea goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, who was excellent here, providing more corners for his clubs in a season that has been full of them.
The second half did not live up to the excitement and pace of the first, both teams started to show off long legs in the final stages, even if there were chances at both ends and when the dust had settled there was a coach who he was the happiest of all.
It was not Tuchel or Jürgen Klopp, who did not travel after testing positive for Covid. It was Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, who can see a 10-point lead over Chelsea and 11 over Liverpool, although the latter club has one game less. The title race is not over yet, but it feels closer and closer.
Liverpool had been undermined by the losses of Covid positives Alisson, Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino and, if it was strange not to see Klopp on the touchline, it was easy to imagine him charging on Merseyside when Mané scored the opening goal.
Trevoh Chalobah got into trouble, choosing to duck and clear his head when Diogo Jota advanced the ball, even though he was there for the volley, and only managed to get Mané in, who cut inside Mendy and hit César Azpilicueta in the line.
The big question was whether Mané should have been in the field. He had chased a high ball forward from kickoff, raising his forearm and entering Azpilicueta with it, the Chelsea captain falling to the ground. “A light red,” Azpilicueta said, and Tuchel agreed. What saved Mané was that he did not swing his arm. It was yellow instead of red. Tuchel was enraged in his technical area.
Salah flashed threateningly and approached in the sixth minute after a loose header from Chalobah to Mané, who ran and crossed. Antonio Rudiger jumped into the save challenge, sending the ball into his own goal, where Mendy cleverly saved.
Salah’s goal was a beauty, starting with the touch to kill a Trent Alexander-Arnold pass down the right. Once he had said goodbye to Alonso, he opened his body and a range of options. He chose the whip shot for the near corner, which was too much for Mendy.
Chelsea had started to feel more and more aggrieved at referee Anthony Taylor, who was not a popular figure in these venues, and they needed a major slide from Chalobah to stop Salah in the 36th minute.
At the time, the idea that Chelsea would be level in the interval was far-fetched. But they came after Kovacic’s volley from the edge of the area. Impressively replacing Alisson, Caoimhin Kelleher punched off an Alonso free kick and Kovacic braced himself as the ball fell, placing it with the laces of his right boot up and toward the far post.
Pulisic’s day had started badly when he threw a heads-up with Kelleher in the seventh minute, after Kai Havertz, who led the line in Lukaku’s absence, loaded an Alexander-Arnold punt. Pulisic would atone for it. With Stamford Bridge in a frenzy, Rudiger stepped up to steal Salah and when N’Golo Kanté helped put the ball into Pulisic once again, only Kelleher could win. This time he did, and there would still be time before the break for Mason Mount to stab the far post for Chelsea.
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Liverpool went through Chelsea on several occasions before seeing offside flags belatedly raised, and if Mendy didn’t get the credit he deserved for saving in those situations, he would do so in others. His stop to push a balloon away from Salah in the 57th minute was top-notch while he would also be on the alert to disprove Mané moments later.
Alonso had shot too high after the second-half resumption, while Chelsea was also able to signal a shot from Pulisic from close range at the time of an Alonso cross that drew a good save from Kelleher.
www.theguardian.com
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism