Chelsea and Liverpool were unable to make up their minds after a poor game marked by a return to contention as holders of Frenchman N’Golo Kante.
In a desperate search for momentum for the end of the season, Chelsea and Liverpool parted 0-0, which did not help anyone, Tuesday, in a late match on the eighth day of the English Premier League.
Liverpool are still in eighth place but are still seven lengths from the Champions League qualifying places. Chelsea, in their first game since the departure of Graham Potter on Sunday, remain in 11th place.
There was something questionable about the Reds’ starting line-up with Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold or Mo Salah on the bench. For their part, Chelsea provided an enhanced midfield during the tenure of N’Golo Kante, the club’s rising captain for the second game since August, along with Mateo Kovacic and Enzo Fernandez.
Brainwave in Liverpool
Almost in every respect this match was in line with what we could expect. The Londoners maintained that their main problem was still being realistic in front of goal, while Liverpool, who had been very weak off this season, were reassuring themselves above all else.
From the fourth minute, a nice drive from Joao Felix allowed the Portuguese to face Alisson, but a few minutes wasted seconds while trying to recover his right foot allowed Joel Matip to come back in full heat.
A few seconds later, it was Ibrahima Konate who faced a very dangerous and soft leave operation in the middle, and he intervened right in front of his own line to prevent Kovacic, who rounded the Reds goalkeeper, from opening the scoring.
Too often this season, Kai Havertz has been particularly clumsy in front of goal (12th, 29th), but he was also unfortunate, when a goal was disallowed for him to handle the ball with his arm, in a favorable encounter against Alisson (50th).
Chelsea, who had already had a goal ruled out by Reece James due to teammates’ offside, could also have made the difference when Kovacic, released by Kante, appeared alone in front of goal (47th), but the Croatian sent his shot into the net. Stamford Bridge stands.
Aston Villa for an excellent series
As for Mersey, aside from a sweet strike from Joe Gomez that Kepa spectacularly cornered in extra time in the first term, the attacking encephalogram remained fairly flat, even after Salah entered the 65th.
In the other matches of the evening, Aston Villa, who caused Potter’s sacking with Saturday’s victory at Chelsea (2-0), went on to beat Leicester (2-1), who left Brendan Rodgers on Sunday.
Una Emery’s men are in an excellent run with 16 points taken from a possible 18 in their last six meetings. They regained seventh place with 44 points, and were ambushed in the race for Europe, while the Foxes are still penultimate.
Ahead of them, Brighton went on to win the derby in the south of England in 18th place, Bournemouth (2-0) and rose to sixth, just 4 units out of the top 4 qualifiers for next year’s C1.
At the bottom of the standings, Leeds scored a huge home win by knocking down Nottingham Forest (2-1). The Peacocks are 13th but a long way from being out of action since their first relegation, Bournemouth have just two points below them, as do Nottingham Forest (17th).
Forest boss Steve Cooper appears to be the perfect candidate to become the 13th manager to be sacked this season in the top flight, while Patrick Vieira, who was recently sacked from Crystal Palace, has been circulating at the City side.
