Liverpool vs Chelsea Review
By: Olumide Akinyemi (Onside Footy Chief Editor) Twitter: OluWenzo Instagram: olu_herodotus
Liverpool have surged to the top of the Premier League table and remain there after a hard fought victory over Chelsea at Anfield yesterday.
Here are three things we learnt from the match;
CHELSEA STILL PLAGUED BY INEXPERIENCE
For the first 30 minutes of the match on Sunday, Chelsea had the Kop biting their fingernails in anxiety and dread. Liverpool were being pinned back in their half and apart from the occasional forays into the blues half, it seemed only a matter of time before the visitors from London open the scoring. Chelsea had the most touches in their opponent’s box and were having more dangerous attacks but lacked the cutting edge to score a goal past a Liverpool defense that had only conceded 2 goals all season until then.
Apart from a contentious decision not to send off Tosin Adarabioyo who appeared to be the last defender when Diego Jota threatened to run through on goal it appeared Liverpool will be lucky to get to half time without conceding and then the unthinkable happened, Colwill brought down Jones and Salah made no mistake from the spot dispatching his penalty with aplomb.
It summed up the difference between both clubs at the moment, while Liverpool are a mix of seasoned campaigners with young upcoming players, Chelsea’s average age is below 25 years, a nod to the policy of Todd Boehly and co were young players with room to bud into superstars are signed and put on long term contracts. While inexperience of a young squad stopped Chelsea from making the most of their early ascendency Liverpool’s veterans seized their moment of opportunity to put themselves ahead.
SANCHEZ IS NOT WORLD CLASS
The goal keeping problem is one which Chelsea have failed to solve since the departure of Thibuart Courtois to Real Madrid with Chelsea spending in excess of over 100m which included a then world record fee for a goalkeeper for Kepa Arizabalaga (who now plays for Bournemouth). At one stage this season, Chelsea had 5 goalkeepers on their books and none can be said to be in the class of Ederson or Allison.
On Sunday, Sanchez who has been preferred to Petrovic this season under Maresca could have done better with Jone’s winner at Anfield, the Spaniard looked indecisive and didn’t particularly inspire confidence with his goalkeeping.
For now, having Sanchez between the sticks will do for Chelsea since he doesn’t make such blatant errors like his recent predecessors but Chelsea will either hope he improves markedly in the coming months or be on the lookout for a world class stopper if they are to return to challenging for honours once again.
LIVERPOOL ARE TITLE CONTENDERS
Arne Slot is not Klopp, heck he doesn’t even come close to having the charisma the German commands at Anfield but so far so good for the Dutch man, he has gotten the job done. Top of the league, 3 goals conceded even without his first choice goalkeeper Allison. On Sunday there was the marked difference between the type of coach slot is and Klopp’s approach.
While a Klopp team would have gone for the kill after going two goals up against Chelsea, Slot decided to protect what he had; out went Alexander-Arnold and matchwinner Curtis Jones, in came MacAllister and Joe Gomes to shut up shop but still left Liverpool holding on for dear lives in the closing stages as Chelsea’s young guns threatened an equalizer.
Still early days but make no mistake that this Liverpool team will have a big say in where the title is headed come May.