The lowdown on Chelsea 3 Liverpool 1 – Blues see off champions with relative ease
Chelsea inflicted only a third league defeat of the season on the lacklustre newly-crowned champions to strengthen their hold on that crucial fifth Champions League spot. The Reds must hate west London. Their only other defeat on the road in the Premier League this season was just down the road at Fulham.
Here is the lowdown on Sunday’s clash.
THE LINE-UPS
Chelsea: Sanchez, Caicedo, Chalobah, Colwill, Cucurella, Lavia (Gusto 78), Fernandez (James 88), Neto, Palmer, Madueke, Jackson (Sancho 72). Subs not used: Jorgensen, Acheampong, Badiashile, George, Tosin, Dewsbury-Hall.
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold (Bradley 58), Quansah, van Dijk, Tsimikas (Chiesa 84), Endo (Mac Allister 69), Jones, Salah, Elliott (Szoboszlai 69), Gakpo, Jota (Nunez 58). Subs not used: Kelleher, Konate, Diaz, Robertson.
SNAPSHOT OF THE GAME
Enzo Fernandez swept home a Pedro Neto cross from 10 yards just three minutes in. On 56 minutes, Virgil van Dijk’s attempt to clear a Cole Palmer cross cannoned back off Jarell Quansah and into the net to make it 2-0.
Van Dijk headed home an 84th minute corner to set up a potentially nervy finale that Cole Palmer calmed by ending his personal goal drought – the England man tucking home a penalty after Jarell Quansah had tripped Moises Caicedo in the box. The strike gave us a fairer reflection of Chelsea’s overall superiority on the day.
Arne Slot gave several fringe players starts and the result was a less-than 100 per cent Liverpool, who struggled to get going. Their midfield was light without Alexis Mac Allister and Dominic Szoboszlai – who came on after the damage had already been done.
Palmer showed glimpses of coming back into his best form with that second goal involvement and he struck the inside of a post late on before capping a great afternoon with a cool penalty – his first goal since mid-January
TACTICAL APPROACH
Enzo Maresca went with the same line-up that squeezed past Everton at the Bridge last weekend and opted for the same Romeo Lavia- Enzo Fernandez pivot in midfield, with Palmer in front of them in the number 10 role.
Eight players who started in the 4-1 win in Sweden against Djurgardens in the Europa Conference League semi-final were relegated to the bench. This was one for the A-team.
Levi Colwill and Trevoh Chalobah were outstanding at the back, keeping Diogo Jota quiet. Marc Cucurella’s high energy levels made sure Mo Salah’s chances to get into dangerous spaces were kept to a minimum.
STAR MAN
Cole Palmer. Had to be him. Chances created, duels, interceptions and carries. The stats all pointed to the mercurial play-maker. The finishing touch may still be missing a little, but there is still so much more to his game and he was fulcrum of many an attack. We also know there are few more reliable from the spot.
BEST MOMENT
For Chelsea fans, the chance to jeer after the pre-match guard of honour and the opportunity to air the Steve Gerrard taunts (at full volume) were savoured to the max. The chants and sense of delight always seem more visceral when Liverpool are their victims. Palmer’s goal at the end probably capped the lot, though.
MOAN OF THE MATCH
Another of those days when there was very little to upset Blues fans, who may like to complain but who will struggle to think of anything that spoils their good mood this weekend.
TALKING POINTS DOWN THE PUB
What a week. More than one foot in another European final followed by a victory which dismisses a lot of doubts about Chelsea’s ability to make the top five this season because of a tricky set of final fixtures.
They made light of this assignment – albeit helped by a below-par Reds – and the feeling of confidence will be high going into those last three fixtures now. The talk might also be about what this young side might achieve next season,
WHAT THE BOSS HAD TO SAY
“We saw Cole [Palmer] day by day at the training ground and he’s exactly the same – scoring goals, happy, enjoying the session. For sure, when he does not score goals he’s not happy and that’s probably because he wants to help the team and the club to reach something important.
“He’s happy because he scored and we won but I didn’t see Cole different from two months ago, three months ago. I said many times he scored 14 goals for us in 20 Premier League games. He didn’t score many goals in the last part of the season but now we have three more games and on Thursday the second leg [against Djurgardens] and hopefully he can help us until the end.
“He’s that kind of player that can do things that no-one can expect. When he has the ball, I expect anything, because he can do anything.”
“You can see we are a better team with Romeo [Lavia] too. Unfortunately he has been injured for most part of the season and probably also maybe the difference between us and more clubs is because we had many important players injured. Romeo is one of them. No doubt that Wes Fofana is another one. Romeo showed today how important he is for the team.”
Pictured top: Cole Palmer strikes a post – but he went on to score at the death (Picture: Alamy)
