In the same illness as Arsenal boss Arteta, Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp was also unlucky to contract pneumonia and had to stay at home in isolation to direct the battle, which seems to be remotely dispatched by him.
Chelsea's recent troubles have seen Lukaku speak out publicly, expressing his disappointment with Chelsea and his criticism of the tactical system, wanting to apologize to Inter fans and hinting at a possible return to Serie A. However, the incident has been revealed to be old news from three weeks ago. Tuchel responded by saying that Lukaku was indeed depressed at the time, but had returned to normal after communication, however, due to the fallout from the incident, Tuchel had to leave Lukaku out of the starting lineup for the time being.
Chelsea's injury problems have eased, except for the absence of right back James, with Azpilicueta filling in, Chalobah at right center back, Kovacic partnering Kante at the back, and a forward line led by Mount, Pulisic and Havertz.
On Liverpool's side, Robertson is suspended due to a red card, Tsimikas replaces him at left back, Henderson, Fabinho and Milner are in the midfield, and the forward lineup remains unchanged, with both teams showing a tough confrontation in the midfield.
The game started with a series of mistakes, just 5 minutes in, Chelsea's back four missed a long pass, City's Mane picked up the ball and passed to Salah, who took a first time shot from 17 yards out, which was fortunately parried away by Mendy. A minute later, Chelsea's long pass was misplaced, Liverpool's Arnold made a poor clearance and Pulisic took a one-two but was denied a shot by Liverpool's substitute keeper Kelleher.
In the 8th minute, Jota crossed the ball from the right, Chalobah could have easily cleared the ball, but suddenly tried to head the ball away, but his posture was too forced, and he fell down, allowing Mane to easily take the ball and dunk it over the keeper, and Azpilicueta couldn't stop him from shooting even though he was chasing back with all his might.
Chalobah has been playing well of late and this miss may have been caused by nerves, it wasn't that difficult a shot but Mane's pressure may have played a part in pushing it.
Upon observing the game, it was easy to see that both teams were overly nervous, which led to a lot of mistakes. In fact, there were two near misses in the first half that could have made it 2-2 with 15 minutes to go, but the Liverpool forward line was in good form, and on 25 minutes Arnold sent a direct kick from midfield to the right side of the field, where Salah took the ball and sprinted to the penalty area, where he shot from the corner of the 6-yard box, past Mendy's fingertips.
Chelsea two wings defense problems, Chalobah performance is not stable, Azpilicueta is not in the right center back position there is a hidden problem, the left side of the M.Alonso attack performance is good, but defensively it is difficult to resist Salah. Tuchel for this reason to send out Kovacic and Kante two strong back, aimed at assisting in defending the two flanks, but the Liverpool direct break through the back of the back back, the effect is obvious. Let the front line straight face Chelsea three center back, the effect is remarkable.
Liverpool could have been 2 goals up with 25 minutes to go in the first half and had they capitalized on their chances, the picture would have been much clearer. Liverpool planned to kill the game off with a counter-attack, but Chelsea began to concentrate, making sure all three Liverpool midfielders were on the defensive, with Rudiger keeping a close eye on Salah, intent on neutralizing the threat.
Chelsea then put Kante up to press with Kovacic in support, Kante's mobility created more space for the three attackers up front as they tried to play directly behind the Liverpool center backs, Fabinho's weaknesses from his poor night were exposed when Kante went up, even with Henderson and Milner sticking to the back it was hard to hold them back Chelsea's quick counter-attacks, as they often play a direct ball into the box, three attackers quickly move in and M.Alonso joins in, instantly creating a numerical advantage, especially with Arnold's poor form defensively, and the intensity of the defense dropping off without Robertson at left back.
In the 40th minute before the end of the first half, M. Alonso took a set piece on the right, the ball was cleared and Kovacic flicked a shot from the top of the box that had the perfect combination of speed and angle, hitting the upper right hand bar and bouncing into the goal for the best goal of his career so far, in a similar vein to Xavier's first time marker against Singapore.
The first half is coming to an end of 45 minutes, Chelsea launched a number of people in front of the press, Liverpool's backfield attempts to clear the ball but can not kick the ball, the three front three sharpshooters did not return in time to pick up the ball, instantly by Chelsea successive destruction of passes and forward passes, and finally Rudiger kicked the ball to the left side of the ball to Kante, Kante calmly turned, diagonally flicked the ball into the penalty box, Pulisic killed the left side of the penalty box, 12 yards away, with a direct left-foot shot through the far post! yard area and fired a left-footed shot right through the far post.
