Chelsea picked up three vital points to keep their hopes of Champions League football alive as they beat defending champions Liverpool 3-1 at Stamford Bridge. Liverpool weren’t at their best, with manager Arne Slot ringing in the changes, and they struggled to gel despite having 65% of the ball.
Liverpool started with Wataru Endo and Curtis Jones in midfield instead of the usual Gravenberch/MacAllister pairing and had Jarell Quansah partnering Virgil Van Dijk in the heart of defence.
The home side started in fine fashion, with a lovely team move culminating in Enzo Fernandez putting them ahead in the 3rd minute. That was doubled shortly before the hour mark when Van Dijk’s attempted clearance ricocheted off Quansah for an own goal on 56 minutes.
Van Dijk ensured that there would be no clean sheet for Robert Sanchez when he nodded home from a corner in the 85th minute. Chelsea however found the third goal to seal the game and it came from a Liverpool mistake, with Dominik Szoboszlai’s misplaced pass resulting in Quansah fouling Moises Caicedo in the area.
Up stepped Cole Palmer and while Alisson guessed right, he was powerless to stop it from going in, and the Blues eventually ran out 3-1 winners.
