Chelsea suffered their first defeat under Antonio Conte – as they fell to a 2-1 loss at the hands of Liverpool.
David Luiz made his second debut for Chelsea on Friday night, in the absence of captain John Terry – and Terry’s leadership qualities were very much a missing component in Chelsea’s play, as they let Dejan Lovren drift in unmarked from a Phillipe Coutinho cross, to poke the ball home.
Chelsea were consistently on the back foot, with Liverpool’s pressing game forcing the Blues into routinely giving up possession through stray passes and poor movement.
Having created virtually nothing going forward it felt as if another Liverpool goal was inevitable – and soon enough it happened, as another stray pass, this time from Gray Cahill allowed Jordan Henderson to curl a superb strike into the top corner from at least 30 yards out. As a result, Chelsea were booed off the pitch at half-time, following an uncharacteristically drab first-half performance.
In the second-half Chelsea began to claw their way back into the game – with an added attacking impetus creating numerous chances going forward. As Liverpool began to tire, Chelsea began to turn the screw and they soon reaped their rewards as Diego Costa tapped a Nemanja Matic cut back into the net – for his fifth goal of the season.
Chelsea failed to capitalise on their superiority however and three late subs could not prevent Liverpool comfortably seeing out the game.
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