Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea recorded a vital win in domestic football on their visit to Anfield as a brilliant goal from Mason Mount turned out to be the deciding factor of the midweek meeting.
Victory on Merseyside meant that the Blues moved back into the top-four of the Premier League, a well-deserved result for Tuchel’s men from their outing.
MATCH PROCEEDINGS
The visitors got off to a lively start on the attacking front and Timo Werner was one man who was a constant threat for the Liverpool FC backline.
Werner’s pace allowed him to the better of the Fabinho-Kabak pairing and the German international nearly put his side in the driver’s seat by slotting in the ball past Alisson Becker, only for VAR to overturn the goal after replays showed that the under-fire forward was in an offside position.
Sadio Mane did get an effort to cause mayhem at the other end of the pitch after the Senegelse was found lurking inside the Chelsea box by Mohammad Salah through a sublime lofted pass but Mane’s control let him down and Mendy collected the ball with ease.
A lucky break allowed Kante to find Mason Mount with a lot of space to wiggle through a retreating Liverpool defence and the latter’s low driving effort was brilliant enough to find the back of the net, giving the Blues a hard-earned lead.
Fresh into the closing 45 minutes, Chelsea avoided hard luck again on the VAR front after Kante was accused of handling the ball inside the box but the Frenchman was let off after a brief check.
Tuchel’s side could have well doubled their advanatge when Ben Chilwell forced a great save out of Liverpool No.1 Alisson Becker and Hakim Ziyech’s subsequent effort on the follow-up was denied by Andy Robertson’s off the line clearance.
The Blues had to engage in a solid show of defensive resilliance over the course of the final third at Anfield and despite Liverpool’s new faces on the pitch striving to find an equilising goal, Chelsea held on to what could prove to be three points of paramount importance in the widely-contested race to secure the top-four finish.
