Chelsea made a perfect start to the game, with Enzo Fernández finishing off a wonderful team move to give us an early lead, inside of just three minutes. It was the perfect start against a team with nothing tangible left to fight for, already confirmed as Champions of England.
And it would’ve been even more perfect if Noni Madueke had done just a bit better two minutes later, either passing to Enzo or finishing the chance himself. Alas, his effort rolled just wide of Alisson’s goal — a nearly moment followed by several more nearly moments. Moisés Caicedo would hit the crossbar and Pedro Neto would miss the goal by mere inches before the half time whistle would go.
In between those early and late flurries of chances, Liverpool dominated possession, but Chelsea stayed solid, compact, and comfortable at the back.
The second half began in similar fashion to the first, and Chelsea had a couple chance to score early again: this time not taking advantage.
But then we did manage to double our lead, after an excellent Cole Palmer ball across the six caused major havoc for Liverpool at the back, and an attempted clearance from Virgil van Dijk hit Jarell Quansah and bounced into the net! They all count!
Liverpool then turned it on, rang the changes, and put Chelsea under tremendous pressure. And for a while we bent without breaking … but our corner defending had been an adventure all day, and Van Dijk would eventually make us pay from one of them late on.
We did have several chances to put the game to bed on the counter, including Cole Palmer getting tremendously unlucky and seeing his shot rebound out rather than in after hitting the inside of the far post, but were unable to do so.
But with the final kick of the game, Cole Palmer scored from the spot — penalty won excellently by Caicedo — to record a massive win for our Champions League hopes!
Carefree.
- Lineup unchanged from last weekend, with Caicedo again at nominal right back and Lavia in midfield
- 7th goal of the season for Enzo, matching last year’s total
- First goal since January for Palmer
- Chelsea move up level on points and goal difference with Newcastle in fourth, behind only on goals scored
- Next up: the formality of the UEFA Conference League semifinal second leg at home against Djurgården on Thursday; after that it’s Newcastle away in a top-five six-pointer
- KTBFFH
