Flat Liverpool will be asked questions in coming weeks
The value of patience, and that doesn’t just apply to watching this mostly turgid derby.
Liverpool look set to wait that bit longer for the title, Everton must wait that bit longer for a win in this fixture, although the home side will be happier with how this went.
There were more encouraging signs for Carlo Ancelotti. As for Jurgen Klopp, that’s harder to say.
Liverpool have now won just two of the last seven – with the obvious caveat that there was a three-month
break between their last match and this.
Debate will grow over whether that run is down to the postponement or something bigger, especially if this wait for the title also grows.
That’s also going to be one of the sub-plots over the next few weeks. With the title all but won, Liverpool’s performances are not going to be judged in the context of this campaign, but instead titles to come.
And sure, they didn’t have their best XI here, but that’s part of the point, since Klopp is eventually going to have to make big decisions to perpetuate this side. It might not be soon, but it is not avoidable.
It stands out when any of that front three are missing, as was the case here, but they are all now over 28. That puts them in their prime, of course, but can be a slightly more advanced age when so much of your play is based on vibrant speed.
That was one reason why some of the questions about not signing Timo Werner were fair. That’s also why it’s going to be important to play Takumi Minamino more and more. It’s the only way he’s going to learn to adjust to the rhythm of this team, something that is still evidently a work in progress. It was all the more pointed that Klopp hauled him off for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain at half-time
The problem – and mini-dilemma – is that you wouldn’t willingly break up that front three when they’re all fit.
Games like this without Mohamed Salah indicate why.
There was a raggedness to Liverpool beyond that, and that feeds the theories that some figures in the Premier League have: that this long break does not suit the most physically powerful teams. Klopp’s side were nothing like themselves in that regard.
It was a much flatter performance. There wasn’t the same pressing or verve. Even Trent Alexander-Arnold was firing long passes into empty stands.
Those same empty stands, and the circumstances, also seemed to suit Everton. Liverpool’s laxness wasn’t just down to themselves, after all.
Ancelotti has clearly learned from his own painful experience in this derby so far. This was a much cannier approach, with Everton seeking to deny all that space for Liverpool to run into. And with Klopp’s side not counter-pressing to the usual level, it meant there wasn’t the same chaos, the type in which Everton usually fall apart.
Jordan Pickford’s defence were admirably resolute here.
Seamus Coleman led the way with some of his retreats, brilliantly marshalling Sadio Mane. Lucas Digne was typically dependable.
From that, Everton were made to be patient, and wait for any chances to pounce, Most of those fell to Richarlison, who was tasked with furrowing the Liverpool half, and it was perhaps no surprise that he snatched at one second-half chance. He was carrying quite a burden.
You could certainly understand Ancelotti setting up as if he was just seeking to avoid humiliation, given the recent nature of this derby. It’s often gone to farcical levels for Everton, not least in that last meeting, in the FA Cup.
If you wanted to be cruel, you could say similar for Dejan Lovren, but it was his introduction that coincided with an inspired Everton spell.
The hosts will feel they missed a chance. Liverpool missed their best form.
Aston Villa 1
Hause (43)
Chelsea 2
Pulisic (60), Giroud (62)
Three months ago, Chelsea’s injuries were such that Frank Lampard scarcely had the luxury of choice. He does now and distinctly different decisions fashioned a comeback that took Chelsea closer to a return to the
Champions League.
One scorer represents the new, one the old. One was benched from the start, the other preferred to the top scorer. Between them, though, Christian Pulisic and Olivier Giroud transformed a deficit and defeat against Aston Villa into victory. Lampard, a catalyst in a turnaround, should have further fond memories of Villa Park, where he broke Chelsea’s goalscoring record. These days, he has to find indirect ways to be a matchwinner but, in his 100th game as a manager, he suggested he can be a game-changer from the bench.
He eschewed orthodoxy in his choices but was swift to act. Initially omitted, Pulisic came on alongside Ross Barkley with just nine minutes of the second half gone. Six minutes later, the American had equalised. After a further two, Giroud, picked in place of the former Villa man Tammy Abraham, justified his selection with the decider.
The third contributor to a fightback was the captain. Cesar Azpilicueta is facing a challenge for his place from Reece James with the youngster’s crossing forming part of his appeal. The captain responded with a demonstration of his own prowess to set up two goals.
The first was a beautiful ball to the far post, allowing the on-rushing Pulisic to deliver the first-time finish. The second stemmed from a move involving Barkley and ended up with Giroud swivelling to beat Orjan Nyland with a shot that took a deflection off Conor Hourihane.
It rendered it a fine few days for Chelsea. Only Wolves of the contenders for third and fourth – or fifth, should that carry the carrot of Champions League football – had won, with Arsenal contriving to relegate themselves behind Crystal Palace. Chelsea’s position is improved. They are now five points clear of Manchester United with eight to play.
Villa have a different sort of relegation on their mind. Briefly, they were on course to extricate themselves from the bottom three. For a while, it was John Terry 1 Lampard 0. A centre-back had scored in a fine rearguard action. Villa’s assistant manager was presumably enjoying it rather more than his former vicecaptain.
Kortney Hause’s first Premier League goal was a close-range finish that came after Douglas Luiz crossed and Kepa Arrizabalaga had blocked Anwar El Ghazi’s shot. A regular criticism of the world’s most expensive goalkeeper is that he saves too few shots: this time, when he did save one, he only pushed it out to the eventual scorer.
Hause prospered at the day job. Villa were organised and Chelsea, with the notable exception of the lively Mason Mount, struggled to break them down. Yet Lampard took decisive action early in the second half. Exit Mateo Kovacic, possibly Chelsea’s player of the season, and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, making his first
appearance for a year. Enter Pulisic and Barkley, Lampard’s impact substitutes.