Slack jawed premier league live1/20/2024 ![]() There had been little to suggest that Chelsea would turn the match around in the last five minutes before half-time. Salah’s movement was wondrous, pulling both the defender and the goalkeeper almost inside-out.ħ. After 26 minutes, Mo Salah created one such moment of cool calm in this frantic half, picking up a through-ball from Alexander-Arnold, feinting to leave Alonso behind, and then playing a wonderful finish inside Mendy’s near post when the goalkeeper was clearly expecting a shot across goal. Pulisic was yellow carded for a sliding tackle that nicked the ball from Diogo Jota but also took a piece of the Liverpool player too. Every time a player came into possession of the ball, he was immediately shut down. ![]() The match would be won by the team that could create the most calm amidst this chaos of players running around the pitch like bumper cars. Mane had work to do upon picking up the ball, but he wrestled it clear of Mendy and wide of the rapidly retreating Azpilicueta.Ħ. Liverpool broke, but Jordan Henderson’s cross into the Chelsea penalty area was going nowhere until Trevoh Chalobah inexplicably decided to Phil Jones the ball clear with his head when it was at ankle-height. Barely a minute earlier, one of the patterns of the game was set when Trent Alexander-Arnold struck the ball straight at Kai Havertz, and it bounced to Christian Pulisic, who tried to take the ball round Kelleher only for the Liverpool goalkeeper to get a hand the ball and scramble it away from him. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, here. There was little time to dwell upon this, since within 10 minutes Mane had also scored for Liverpool. Perhaps they were still scrambling to put 50p in the meter.ĥ. It’s certainly difficult to see how it could be given as a yellow card, especially with VAR supposedly on patrol. But it seems doubtful that anyone in a position of influence would admit to making a decision like that, since it isn’t in the laws of the game, so it’s back to that ‘spirit of the law’ vs ‘letter of the law’ debate, then. It’s easy to be tempted by the idea that this challenge was treated leniently because it came so soon after kick-off. Both teams set off at a furious pace, which ending up lasting for the entirety of the first half, and after just six seconds we might even have had a red card, when Sadio Mane jumped into Cesar Azpilicueta while leading with his forearm. With Reece James, Ben Chilwell and Lukaku all missing for Chelsea, this was a match surrounded by a lot of shadows.Ĥ. Two days earlier, the club had reported that Thiago Alcantara and Takumi Minamino would be missing with injury, and that three players had tested positive for the virus, who were later identified as Roberto Firmino, Joel Matip and Alisson, replaced in goal by Caoimhín Kelleher, who was making only his second Premier League start of the season. Jurgen Klopp has tested positive for Covid-19, and was therefore absent for this match, with his assistant Pepijn Lijnders taking control for this match. Still, at least Chelsea actually had their manager there. As things turned out, few were still talking about Lukaku by half-time.ģ. His absence meant that his shadow would loom large over this match, at least at kick-off. His season, particularly bearing in mind his £97.5m transfer fee, has only witnessed modest returns so far, but there had been signs that a corner was being turned with his recent goals and performances. On one level, Lukaku had scored in his previous two matches. There’d been a lot of comment about Thomas Tuchel’s decision to omit Romelu Lukaku from the Chelsea squad, much of it approving, but it would be remiss not to mention that this came at an obvious risk to both manager and team, and could manifest itself in more than one way. Goodness knows what it must have been like to play in.Ģ. The first half of this match was exhausting to watch. There were defensive slip-ups and questionable refereeing decisions, all played out by two teams not at full strength. The first half of the match between Chelsea and Liverpool was like a 45-minute sugar rush, but this high was borne of imperfection. We have to wade through a lot of mediocrity to get to football’s real highs but when they come, particularly in rapid succession, they can leave us slack-jawed and giddy. No other sport can create a level of intensity quite like it, and its brilliance is often a matter of pearls amongst swine. Thomas Tuchel and his team sent a message to their missing player and Jurgen got a point without having to leave his sickbed, but Pep Guardiola won the match between Chelsea and Liverpool.ġ.
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