Tireless Chelsea show the mettle of true champions ARSENAL STINK OUT THE ETIHAD
Gutless Gunners lack fight as rampant City show they don’t need Ronaldo for firepower
THoMaS Tuchel surveyed the away dressing room. a lot of tired men. a lot of exhausted, aching bodies. But he would have seen something else too. The mettle of champions. The faces of defiance, of determination.
Tuchel will have suspected as much already, of course. He travelled back from Porto with these players and the champions League trophy.
Yet domestic football is different. a long, arduous, often unglamorous slog. and chelsea are unlikely to play a longer 45 minutes this season than the second half at anfield.
and they came through it. Not with a win, but a draw. a goalless draw played out across 45 minutes plus additional time with a man short against one of the most unrelentingly energetic attacking sides in europe.
Liverpool do not stop running nor trying. Yet the best chance to win the game after half-time fell to Mateo Kovacic of chelsea. Before the end, locals headed for the exits. They had seen enough.
chelsea were not going to bend to Liverpool’s will. So it was
not just that they held out. it was the speed with which stalemate became the likely conclusion. repelling Liverpool, they were quite magnificent.
‘Look what they did, down to ten men,’ said Jurgen Klopp. ‘They could have changed to four at the back, they could have gone with something different in midfield, but they kept a back five and counter-attacks. So they still had an advantage because in the area where you score goals they had eight players, plus a goalie.’
He could barely hide his admiration. When atletico Madrid eliminated Liverpool from europe with a cussed display in 2020, Klopp was contemptuous of their negativity.
This was different. He had genuine sympathy for the red card shown to reece James for handball on the line — even though it was the right decision — and nothing but respect for chelsea’s second-half reaction.
The back line of cesar azpilicueta, antonio rudiger, andreas christensen, Thiago Silva, Marcos alonso and goalkeeper edouard Mendy were outstanding, the rest relentless in frustrating Liverpool.
it is very unfair to question romelu Lukaku’s display against Virgil van dijk given he was alone for much of the match. chelsea would not have got this point last season because they did not possess a striker capable of battling physically as Lukaku did, not even olivier Giroud. it was a brave and unselfish turn.
So when Tuchel reflected on what may well stand as one of the best performances by any group this season, it was seen through the eyes of a manager who felt he had won. a point at anfield is never a bad result, but this carried the psychological lift of three. it demonstrated that, whatever the title race has to throw at chelsea this season — even cristiano ronaldo — they are ready for it.
‘absolutely, it was like a win,’ said Tuchel, whose side took the lead through Kai Havertz (above). ‘Would it feel the same if we played 11 versus 11 or conceded a penalty in the last minute? No, because you feel super disappointed that you lost two points.
‘This feeling is not like that because the challenge is so, so high. even without the red card it is one of the toughest games to play at anfield, so this feels good and the players are super tired.
‘But they did it and this is what i love. You can talk about it at half-time and you can make promises but then you have to survive difficult situations, the pressure, all the runs and the attacking confidence of Liverpool. You have to absorb it, be braver and braver to escape the pressure.
‘i was praying in the last five minutes that we take this point and have this experience together. Then we can survive situations like this and it shows you have the spirit to overcome obstacles.
‘This is maybe the toughest question you can be asked in world football, at Liverpool, a man down for 45 minutes, defending with the Kop on your back. So this says in these moments we have what it takes.
‘The key factor in the last half of last season was that we played like brothers and could rely on each other. Today was the proof.’
Klopp’s explanation for why he couldn’t feel too upset was illuminating. ‘This is chelsea,’ he said. ‘They are full of confidence and quality. Before the game some people might think they could even have run over us. it’s rare to get this kind of intensity.’
already, chelsea are the team to beat.
LIVERPOOL (4-3-3): Alisson 6; AlexanderArnold 6, Matip 6, Van Dijk 7, Robertson 6 (Tsimikas 80); Elliott 7, Fabinho 7, Henderson 6 (Thiago Alcantara 74); Mane 6, Firmino 5 (Jota 43), Salah 6. Subs not used: Konate, Keita, Gomez, OxladeChamberlain, Minamino, Kelleher. CHELSEA (3-4-2-1): Mendy 8; Azpilicueta 8, Christensen 9, Rudiger 8; James 6, Kante 7 (Kovacic46), Jorginho 7 (Chalobah 87), Alonso 8; Havertz 7 (Thiago Silva 46), Mount 7; Lukaku 8. Subs not used: Arrizabalaga, Werner, Loftus-Cheek, Hudson-Odoi, Chilwell, Ziyech. Booked: Rudiger, Mendy. Sent off: James. Man of the match: Andreas Christensen. Referee: Anthony Taylor.
have quietened the clamour for attacking reinforcements.
Harry Kane came and went. So too Cristiano Ronaldo, whose agent Jorge Mendes is understood to have offered up the Portuguese a week last Friday during an eight-hour visit to the training ground. Mendes is thought to have discussed new contracts for keeper
Ederson, Ruben Dias and Joao Cancelo — before presenting the option of Ronaldo.
City weighed up the possibility — Ronaldo was not everybody’s idea of the right signing to make — and did not want to part with a fee. Manchester United came in and sorted everything out by last Friday morning and will pay just shy of £20million with add-ons. ‘We don’t need a striker because we scored five goals,’ Guardiola said flippantly. ‘When we don’t score, how many people say we need to sign a striker. We didn’t buy one. We tried but it’s sometimes not possible. Ferran Torres makes movements like the best strikers in behind, like Jamie Vardy.’ Pressed on whether City would have gone ahead with the Ronaldo deal had United not swooped, Guardiola said. ‘I don’t think so.’
MANCHESTER CITY (4-3-3): Ederson 6; Walker 7 (Zinchenko 45), Dias 7, Laporte 7, Cancelo 7; Bernardo 8 (Sterling 58), Rodri 8, Gundogan 8; Jesus 8 (Mahrez 61), Torres 9, Grealish 8. Subs not used: Steffen, Stones, Eke, Zinchenko, Fernandinho, Doyle, Palmer. Booked: Rodri. ARSENAL (5-4-1): Leno 5; Cedric 4, Chambers 5, Holding 6, Kolasinac 5, Tierney 5; Saka 6 (Elneny 45), Odegaard 5 (Maitland-Niles 71), Xhaka 4, Smith Rowe 6; Aubameyang 6. Subs not used: Ramsdale, Tavares, Mari, Sami, Elneny, Lacazette, Martinelli, Okonkwo. Booked: Cedric, Kolasinac. Sent off: Xhaka. Man of the match: Ferran Torres. Referee: Martin Atkinson. Attendance: 52,276.