Both teams knew victory was a must after a disappointing last couple of games, and the match started in typically frantic fashion. Édouard Mendy denied Sadio Mané early on, before Caoimhin Kelleher did brilliantly to deny Christian Pulisic after the ball had fallen to the feet of the American inside the area.
Liverpool were ahead just minutes later though, when Trevoh Chalobah made a mess of a clearing header, allowing Mané to pick the ball up on the edge of the area before taking it past Mendy and firing into the net. The ‘Reds’ doubled their lead with the half-hour mark approaching when a pinpoint ball over the top from Trent Alexander-Arnold found Mohamed Salah, and the Egyptian showed his class to beat Alonso before firing past Mendy at the near post for his 150th goal in English football.
However, in a chaotic last five minutes of the first half, the ‘Blues’ got themselves back on level terms. First, Mateo Kovačić scored a goal of the season contender when his first time volley found the top right corner, before Pulisic finished off a counter-attack to send Stamford Bridge into pandemonium. Salah came close to restoring Liverpool’s lead 12 minutes into the second half when he spotted Mendy off his line and attempted to lob him with an audacious effort, which the Senegalese stopper did well to push behind. At the other end, Kelleher was alert to deny Pulisic’s first-time shot from point-blank range.
The hosts were the team who looked more likely to snatch a late victory, but neither side could find the net for a third and decisive time. The league positions remain as they were, with Chelsea second and 10 points behind City, while Liverpool stay third with an 11-point deficit to the ‘Cityzens’ albeit with a game in hand.
