Chelsea 2 Liverpool 2: Stunning first-half fightback from Blues sees spoils shared in ‘title race’ thriller
THOMAS TUCHEL axed Romelu Lukaku for making too much ‘noise’ – then heard the decibel levels go off the scale at a raucous Stamford Bridge.
The Chelsea boss made the bold move of dropping his £97million record signing, then saw a pair of belters from Mateo Kovacic and Christian Pulisic haul back a two-goal deficit before half-time.
Yet this thrilling unpredictable contest pretty much ensured that the Premier League title race will be anything but, as Manchester City’s two distant contenders had to settle for a point apiece.
Sadio Mane and Mo Salah had fired Liverpool into an early 2-0 lead, despite the absence of manager Jurgen Klopp and three more Covid casualties from his squad.
Every time the Reds travel to the capital, we are treated to high-tempo lunacy – their visits to Brentford, West Ham and Tottenham have been similarly pulsating.
Yet the fact that Klopp’s men have won on none of those four trips to London means that Pep Guardiola’s City lead them by 11 points.
The Reds have a game in hand but with Salah and Mane heading to the African Cup of Nations, the task is surely too stiff now.
Chelsea are second, ten points adrift of the champions, and they simply don’t have the momentum to suggest they are capable of making a fight of it.
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Lukaku had been punished for mouthing off about his dissatisfaction in an Italian TV interview – but the big Belgian was hardly missed as the Blues roared back and might easily have snatched victory in a lively but goalless second half.
After City’s injury-time winner at Arsenal on Saturday, this felt increasingly like a clash between the two also-rans in a three-horse ‘title race’.
Klopp hadn’t travelled after a positive Covid test – leaving assistant Pep Lijnders in charge – and neither had Allison, Joel Matip or Roberto Firmino.
The mayhem began after 12 seconds when Mane escaped a red card for elbowing Cesar Azpilicueta – VAR deeming it reckless but not violent.
And within nine minutes, Chelsea’s sense of grievance was heightened when Mane opened the scoring.
It was a shocker from Blues centre-back Trevoh Chalobah whose attempted interception was spectacularly misjudged as he attempted to head back to Edouard Mendy at ankle-height but allowed Mane to round his fellow Senegalese and slot home.
Before that, Mendy had saved well from Salah and Liverpool’s stand-in keeper Caoimhin Kelleher had thwarted Pulisic after Kai Havertz had charged down a attempted clearance from Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Pulisic survived a VAR check after a wild follow-through on Diogo Jota.
But Liverpool were soon two-up, Alexander-Arnold picking out Salah with a peachy pass and the Egyptian filleting Marcos Alonso and beating Mendy at his near post with a classy finish.
It was chaotic stuff – slapstick football played at a thrash-metal tempo – and Mason Mount escaped some more VAR snooping for waving a stray boot at a prone Konstantinos Tsimikas.
As half-time approached, Chelsea were ragged and frantic. By the interval, though, they were level after scoring twice in three minutes.
First, Kelleher punched away a free-kick and Kovacic met it with a dipping 25-yard volley which crashed home off the post.
VAR Darren England checked on an offside but decided that Antonio Rudiger could not have been interfering with the flight of Kovacic’s effort as he is considerably less than 18 feet tall.
Suddenly the Bridge was rocking, Rudiger robbed Salah, N’Golo Kante dinked a pass which caught Liverpool square and Pulisic rammed his shot inside the far post.
Pulisic might even have put Chelsea ahead in first-half injury-time and the break did nothing to calm the frenzied pace of the contest.
Alonso shot high and wide after a driving run and a cutting pass from Kante.
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But Liverpool nearly regained the lead when they counter-attacked from a corner, Pulisic’s blunder allowing Jota to feed Salah whose 30-yard chip was brilliantly pushed away by a back-pedalling Mendy, who collided with his post.
Then, Mane exchanged passes with Salah, cut inside Thiago Silva and had a thumping shot pushed wide by Mendy.
At the opposite end, Keller made a fine reaction stop from Pulisic, who was soon switched to wing-back as Tuchel had a reshuffle, bringing on Jorginho, who restored an element of sanity to proceedings.