In Sunday night’s English Premier League football news, Chelsea and Liverpool drew 2-2. So, they both suffered a significant blow in the EPL title race, leaving league leaders Manchester City 10 points clear.
Four first-half goals, from Liverpool’s Sadio Mané and Mohamed Salah and Chelsea’s Mateo Kovačić and Christian Pulisic, decided the match.
Premier League Football News – Chelsea and Liverpool Drew 2-2
The First Half
The opening minutes were horrific, as Chelsea capitalized on an electric atmosphere, dominating over the disjointed midfield.
Then, Sadio Mané found Mohamed Salah on a break and probably should have scored. It required some Caoimhín Kelleher heroics, but Liverpool were nonetheless 0-1 up within 10 minutes.
Sadio Mané calmly took advantage of some calamitous defending by Chelsea and so, the first 10 minutes were totally action-packed.
Despite being unable to retain possession and playing terrible passes, Liverpool were, soon after, up by 0-2 at Stamford Bridge.
This was thanks to two very, very good goals from world-class footballers, and no one else really, like Mo Salah scoring from that angle. It was his first goal for Liverpool at Stamford Bridge (he has previously scored at Chelsea’s home ground for Basel).
The first half seemingly calmed down after this second goal, with the Reds managing to be smarter on the ball.
However, a Milner foul led to a Mateo Kovačić wonder-strike. And then, following a breakdown in transition in stoppage time, Christian Pulisic added a second goal for Chelsea.
The two goals came in a particularly poor period for the Reds, and were scored four minutes apart.
The Second Half
In the second half, Liverpool had some chances to regain the lead but goalkeeper Edouard Mendy saved his Chelsea side.
Meanwhile, both Jordan Henderson and Fabinho, in different ways, displayed lower levels of decision-making both on and off the ball.
In the final 10 minutes, Chelsea were enjoying free kicks from any slight contact, which clearly frustrated the Liverpool defense. Adding to this annoyance, Chelsea dominated the ball as it took Liverpool until stoppage time for even a potential tie-breaker.
Regardless of the draw, the Reds made mistakes throughout with poor positioning giving Chelsea (otherwise easily avoidable) chances to score.
