Luiz Diaz and debutant Axel Disasi were on target for Liverpool and Chelsea respectively as the two sides played out to a 1-1 draw in their Premier League opener at Stamford Bridge.
That draw means the two sides have drawn their last seven consecutive games when facing each other.
To the game on Sunday, it was Jurgen Klopp’s men who started off the game brighter, constantly attacking Chelsea’s left side of the defense to fashion a couple of chances earlier on
Dominik Szoboszlai and Diogo Jota both saw their efforts drift just wide while Mohammed Salah rattled the crossbar with a shot from the edge of the box..
After a nervy start to the game, Chelsea began to settle in after the opening 10 minutes and Nicholas Jackson almost turned in a well driven Recee James cross, only to be denied by Allison Becker.
Moments later on the other end, Liverpool broke the deadlock through Diaz who finished off Salah’s defense spitting pass past Chelsea’s custodian Robert Sanchez.
Chelsea needed to respond after conceding and Jackson almost did that for the Blues after bouncing off two challenges to create space for himself, but his effort unfortunately drifted wide.
Liverpool then got the ball into the back of the net again, but this time they were denied by VAR who cancelled out Salah’s goals for offside.
With just seven minutes to the break, Chelsea levelled matters after Disasi guided the ball beyond the on-rushing Alisson. The Frenchman’s goal came after Ben Chilwell knocked the ball back into the penalty area following a poor clearance from Liverpool.
A few seconds later, Chelsea thought they had gotten their second of the game after Enzo Fernandez played a pass through to Chilwell. The left-back rounded Alisson to tap home, but VAR came into play again to also deny that goal.
Before the break, Jackson got a chance to put Chelsea ahead but he shot over the crossbar after a trademark James cross.
After the break, Chelsea returned a far better side as they dominated proceedings from the start with Fernandez the architect of almost everything.
Fernandez spilled the ball to Chilwell to score, but the defender saw his near-post effort pushed away by Alisson.
Alisson did the same to Jackson’s shot after the forward had raced onto Levi Colwill’s excellent pass.
Liverpool’s threatening moment of the closing half came at almost the death when Darwin Nunez’s effort took a deflection and beat off the dive of Sanchez, but unluckily the ball landed just wide off the mark.
Chelsea almost won the game before the end when Jackson led a rapid counter attack. The ball ended up to substitute Ian Maatsen in the box, but the youngster was unable to get a shot away and score.
In the end, the entertaining game ended level and both sides collected a point in their opener.
