If Anfield has been biding its time before really showing Arne Slot what it is capable of, then this was the day it all changed. And in a season that is becoming littered with them, Liverpool regained their lead at the top of the Premier League with the hardest-fought victory of the campaign so far against Chelsea.
This didn’t quite scream ‘performance of champions’ but it might have gently offered up a similar sentiment as Slot’s men shrugged off Manchester City’s last-gasp winner at Wolves that temporarily usurped them at the top to pick up a major 2-1 victory in the early-season jousting.If new dad Curtis Jones is set now for a few sleepless nights as he adjusts to fatherhood, he will at least have the highlights of his performance here to watch back on with exhausted pride.
Reds fans proudly boast about the ‘Scouser in the team’ when it comes to Trent Alexander-Arnold but they will have to extend that now after England Under-21 international Jones grasped his opportunity with a match-winning performance that saw him trample over the most expensively-assembled midfield in football history in £115m Moises Caicedo and substitute £106m Enzo Fernandez.
Jones, who nudged home the winning goal in the second period from Mohamed Salah’s cross, won six duels while regaining possession for his team half a dozen times too, and it was he who won the penalty for the opening goal. He should have had a second spot-kick awarded for his team too when he was taken down by goalkeeper Robert Sanchez before the half-time interval. A pitchside-check of the monitor eventually reversed that particular decision before the break.
One Jones block from Cole Palmer in the first half was vital and it was an all-round display that should now give his own season liftoff, just as he gets to grips with the new arrival to his young family off the pitch.
The goal aside, Jones’s most impactful contribution came in the second half when he won it back to thwart a dangerous Chelsea attack before rolling Palmer and winning a free-kick from Caicedo inside the centre circle to relieve the pressure and earn the adulation of the crowd. It was enough, in fact, to bring about a rarely heard terrace ditty set to Bony M’s Daddy Cool in honour of the city-centre-born star. Keep this up and it will be given regular airings in the coming months and years.
Salah battered home his penalty for his sixth goal of the campaign after Jones was fouled by Levi Colwill and the decision to award the spot kick came shortly after the No.11 had gone down under a challenge from the same Chelsea defender inside the area. John Brooks’s call not to give a penalty that time drew the vociferous ire of the home faithful and actually served as the catalyst for the hosts to really kick into motion in the final third.
Liverpool also felt Brooks, who endured an off day in the middle, had wronged them inside the opening exchanges when Diogo Jota was brought down by Tosin Adaraiboyo with the centre-back as the last man. Less than 24 hours earlier, William Saliba was dismissed in almost identical circumstances as Arsenal lost 2-0 at Bournemouth. Calls for consistency are falling on deaf ears at the PGMOL and Jota was forced to be withdrawn later in the half for Darwin Nunez, who impressed. The Portugal international is now a doubt for Wednesday night’s trip to RB Leipzig in the Champions League.
Chelsea appear to be something of a different beast under Enzo Maresca but this visit to Anfield was always going to be the best gauge of their progress under the former Leicester boss, so he will feel that his team are at least heading in the right direction as they battled until the dying embers of 97 minutes before being made to concede defeat.
Their leveller came when the revitalised Nicolas Jackson raced onto Caicedo’s through ball before dispatching past Caoimhin Kelleher and after two torrid years of expensive, scattergun recruitment and a succession of managerial hirings and firings, the Londoners might finally be turning a corner. They are emerging as a real rival once more.
For Liverpool’s part, though, an improvement against other teams inside the top six must be the aim for Slot and his staff after just two wins in the 10 games against rivals inside that mini-league last time out. This was a perfect start towards rectifying that record and such statistics could be the difference between a credible title challenge and one that falls away prematurely.
At times, Chelsea’s cause was aided by some curious officiating from referee Brooks, who was the recipient of Slot’s most impassioned touchline outburst so far as head coach when he bizarrely blew for a foul on Renato Veiga by the otherwise excellent Nunez, who looked to have fairly shoulder charged the defender to the deck.
