Chelsea and Liverpool both exited Saturday night with a point having drawn their encounter at Stamford Bridge, but who would have taken more positives from their clash?
CHELSEA
The Blues lined up in Sarri's favoured 4-3-3 once more with no changes to the usual personnel. The one significant change however was how deep both full backs, Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta played on Saturday evening. Liverpool's front three maintained a high starting position at all times throughout. Therefore as a precautionary measure Sarri instructed both full backs to stay closer to home in order to block off the half spaces and room for Mane and Salah to venture into. The significance of the Liverpool press was that Firmino's cover shadow prevented Jorginho from obtaining clean possession. As a result David Luiz and Antonio Rudiger were handed the task of leading the Blues' build up play. Only Jorginho with 82 touches surpassed the Chelsea duo in touches. Luiz meanwhile once more demonstrated his uncanny ability to pick out Chelsea's widemen with his long raking diagonals. His pass to Willian provided him with the opportunity to open the scoring in the first half only for their Brazilian colleague and Liverpool keeper, Allison to deny from point blank range. While the Reds contained the presence of Chelsea's catalyst, Jorginho on the ball the nationalized Italian did not veer away from his director duties and deployed both Luiz and Rudiger many a time forward as shown by his constant array of hand signals.
When the Reds were marginally off with their spacing Chelsea took advantage in the middle with the little one and two touch combinations between Jorginho and Mateo Kovacic proving a key facet of their play. Kovacic was particularly imposing and no midfield player either side ammassed more tackles than the Croatian. Along with the comative abilities he demonstrated he once showed again the calibre of playmaker Chelsea have longing for many a year.. N'Golo Kante once again struggled with the task boss Sarri has enlisted of the Parisien. Although improved from last Sunday at West Ham, the Frenchman struggled to assert any authority on the game. In transition from attack to defence he did prove invaluable with two first half interceptions being the highlight. However it is a tad saddening to see a player pf such ability being out of sync with such a system. It will be interesting to see for how much longer the Kante experiment on the right side of Chelsea's midfield lasts for much longer.
Olivier Giroud got the nod up front ahead of Alvaro Morata but struggled to effect the game as he had done in prior weeks. Admittedly though he was up against it with the formidable pairing of Virgil van Dijk and Joe Gomez at their best. The hold up play Giroud was expected to offer never materialized largely down to the marshalling of Van Dijk. He did have an early opportunity to combine with Hazard and Kovacic in the opening stages of the first half but aside the Frenchman was not involved. Alvaro Morata when he came on introduced a different dynamic. He kept the Liverpool defence more honest and managed with his pace to pen them back a few yards. The workrate and effort was there yet once again the lack of output from the Spaniard will once again concern Chelsea fans. His tally of 12 league goals from 37 games is unimpressive while in that time alone he has just managed on average one shot on target per game, not exactly what you need from your team's most expensive attacker. If the Spaniard is to endure another season akin to last, he can be sure of a one way fare out of SW6.
Once again it was left to magician and star man, Eden Hazard to save the day for the Blues. Since the Belgian joined Chelsea in 2012 the improvement in the diminutive winger has been slow at best. However he has exploded out of the blocks this season with his strike against Liverpool totaling his seventh thus far with six in the league making him the Premiership's top scorer. Many a time in the first half Giroud was on the left or right wing when Liverpool had possession indicating Sarri's willingness to leave Hazard free to roam and essentially do him. The improvement in his play this season has been notable, he looks a player re-energized by his World Cup exploits and is eager to cement his ambition of being one of the world's best. A key factor is the number of sprints Hazard performs, not so much the number as to where. The last four seasons , Hazard would have performed his defensive duties to an extent tracking back and blocking off passing lanes. Now with "Sarriball" Hazard can just get down to work and focus on attacking the opposition goal. The change is there for all to see and whereas in previous seasons he would not have taken the shot on this year there is more risk to the Belgian's game and I think Chelsea fans are appreciating even more the exponential rewards to date. If the Blues are to continue to surmount a title challenge, Hazard is central to their chances.
LIVERPOOL
The Red's started in their customary 4-3-3 formation. There were no changes to their usual go to lineup with Virgil Van Dijk passing a late fitness test to take his place in the Reds XI. Klopp's men started like a team on a mission. They were on it from the get go Saturday right from kickoff. Chelsea's unorthodox kick off approach of David Luiz pinging a long diagonal down the Liverpool right nearly caught them out in last Wednesday's Carabao clash but they were not to be fooled on Saturday. Joe Gomez started in a right back position with Trent Alexander-Arnold just tucked in behind. Gomez winning that header just less than five seconds in set the tone for an aggressive and purposeful performance Saturday evening. As discussed, Chelsea full backs, Marcos Alonso and Cesar Azpilicueta took a more conservative approach on Saturday with their withdrawn positions. However the opposite was true of the Reds. Both Andy Robertson and Alexander-Arnold played high up the pitch, eager to get forward at a moment's notice and set the tone for Klopp's reds. Such a move was an illustration of the poker chips, Jurgen Klopp now believes he holds. To go away to a team like Chelsea and assume such an attacking approach would be considered brash and apprehensive from many "big" clubs in previous years but Klopp has faith in this Liverpool side. A far cry indeed from the pairing of Nathaniel Clyne and Alberto Moreno that took the field for Klopp's first game in charge, a 0-0 with Tottenham on 17/10/2015.
Liverpool had learned their lesson from Wednesday night's game and that was evident in the early exchanges. Cesc Fabregas had a field day at Anfield and this was largely down to the aggressive nature of the Liverpool press. Daniel Sturridge repeatedly closed down Chelsea's Cabellero who then had the task of passing horizontally to Christensen or Cahill who had the simple task of picking out Fabregas with a 5 yard diagonal pass. Such a simple detail caused chaos in the Liverpool midfield particularly in the first half and Chelsea had unbelievable space between the lines for most part and got the run on the Reds. Firmino was Liverpool's striker this weekend though and he performed what was required expertly. Firmino never committed himself once and was the cover shadow preventing Kepa or Chelsea's centre halves to find their maestro in Jorginho who usual is the fulcrum of everything the Blues do good and the definition of "Sarriball". This was aided by the inward pressing of both Salah and Mane with the latter performing it better. Liverpool had little joy down their right and apparently the weak Chelsea left which pre game was a huge talking point. Salah's off the ball work was just not good enough Saturday and Liverpool paid the price time and time again. Gini Wijnaldum performed the duties of both players with the amount of running Salah inextricably caused him to do. Kovacic and Jorginho did put together some nice combinations down the Chelsea left half space and this was crucial to the Hazard's opening goal. Many argue about the positioning of Alexander-Arnold but on closer inspection Salah's role does not show the Egyptian well up at all.
Attacking wise Salah had a relatively good game, just a pity for him and Reds his finishing was a bit off. The marauding Alexander-Arnold allowed Salah to drift in to the centre time and time again into those pockets he enjoys most. By right he should have had two first half goals, even though they were not forthcoming at the Bridge the Egyptian king will soon be back among them. Meanwhile down the left, Liverpool enjoyed most dominance. The trio of Robertson, Milner and Mane all played together in tandem and aside from the selfishness of Mane at times were a joy to watch. Chelsea made little or no headway down their right thanks to the expert pressing of all three. Mane was at his maverick best once more upsetting the opposition faithful with his constant nagging of Chelsea's defence. His movement and interchanging with Firmino off the ball was a joy to watch and another day would have been central to a Liverpool victory. Robertson looked like a left winger at times and is getting better almost every game. On one counter attack he should have been played in from Mane when unadvisedly, the Senegalese attacker attempted the spectacular. One expects him to comfortably improve on the two league assists he has conjured thus far with the quality of delivery he displayed once again. Most memorably an exquisite daisy cutter on the run after slipping Azpilicueta to square to Shaqiri only for the Swissman to miss from six yards. The remarkable rise of the Scot is a testament to himself and also manager, Jurgen Klopp. The German with his teaching hat on has been crucial to the development of Alexander-Arnold, Gomez and Robertson to date, given the depth of talent such as U-17 World Cup winner Rhian Brewster , Curtis Jones and Derby loanee Harry Wilson coming through, Liverpool and England fans can dream.
Although it took a sublime 89th minute equalizer from Daniel Sturridge to nick a point at the last, upon further reflection most Liverpool fans would have been disappointed with Saturday's result. Expectations have changed and much more is expected of Jurgen Klopp and his boys this season. Champions League heartbreak will not suffice for the Scousers this season. How Alisson and Van Dijk have taken to life on the Mersey is a promising sight for all Liverpool fans. It has been a long three years since the German took the reigns with more lows than highs but moral victories aplenty. The change in personnel has been gradual and the level of blue chip players Klopp has available at his disposal now far outweighs what he began with. An untimely reminder to Liverpool fans that in 2010, the then new boss Roy Hodgson's free signing of Christian Poulsen was a prominent feature in many of Roy's first teamsheets at the Pool. Nowadays the 43.7 million signing, Fabinho and 53 million signing, Naby Keita start on the Liverpool bench. What lies ahead is a midweek trip to Naples for a crunch Champions League clash and the primetime slot of next week's fixtures with a top of the table clash against champions, City. Where fear and moral victories were the order of the day at Anfield for many a year before now the red half of Liverpool expects and far more importantly believes they will add another verse into "Allez, allez, allez" come year end.