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The sound of referee Anthony Taylor’s final whistle echoing around a rapidly emptying Stamford Bridge to the sound of silence was the perfect backing track to this non-event.
Chelsea and Liverpool have played out many epic clashes in domestic and European fixtures over the last two decades as they fought each other for the game’s biggest prizes. This was not one of them.
If those past meetings reflected their elevated status as two of the prime forces in the Premier League, Champions League, the FA Cup and League Cup, this drab affair encapsulated their current standings of eighth and 11th in the table.
It is now seven hours and 45 minutes since the last goal between these two teams, taking in the League Cup and FA Cup finals last season that were both won on penalties by Liverpool. As they ran dry of ideas, inspiration and intensity at Stamford Bridge, you suspect it could have been at least another seven hours 45 minutes before any deadlock was broken here.
Indeed, as this game descended into a morass of mediocrity after an entertaining opening phase, the placings of Liverpool in eighth and Chelsea three places below almost qualified as flattery.
Chelsea, as so often in the past, are in a period of instability following the sacking of manager Graham Potter, with coach Bruno Saltor in the dugout while owner Todd Boehly and his Clearlake group seek their third manager of the season.
It led to an odd atmosphere around Stamford Bridge. One that mixed the early enthusiasm that often accompanies the dismissal of an unpopular manager with the feeling that Chelsea’s season is now in a holding pattern awaiting the new arrival and the upcoming Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid.
Chelsea’s immediate need, alongside the appointment of a new manager, is goals because for all the £600m lashed out by Boehly and co. since they succeeded Roman Abramovich, this appears to be the one commodity that is beyond the simple use of the chequebook.
It was a flaw that undermined Potter and it was ingloriously on show against Liverpool as Joao Felix showed great skill but a tendency to hold on to the ball too long, Kai Havertz could not find the finishing touch while Mateo Kovacic allowed Ibrahima Konate to sweep his first-half effort off the line before sending a second-half chance way over the top with just Alisson to beat.
Chelsea’s season is at least still alive, although who is in the technical area and who will score the goals against Real Madrid remains to be seen.
It will be quite a task for Saltor to try to outwit the old master and one of Potter’s long-ago predecessors Carlo Ancelotti, but Chelsea insist their process will be exhaustive as they pursue a manager of proven pedigree.
As for Liverpool, the top four is their only target after that relentless chase for a historic quadruple last season, which brought the FA Cup and League Cup but disappointment in the Premier League and Champions League.
Jurgen Klopp made six changes to freshen up his side after the heavy beating at Manchester City, with Virgil van Dijk ill and Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson on the bench.
And while the result was an improvement, the overall Liverpool performance was deadly dull, lacking in intensity and threat apart from five minutes at the end of the first half.
The team that has flooded home and abroad with goals in recent years has scored just one in four games since that astonishing 7-0 demolition of Manchester United at Anfield – and that in a 4-1 defeat at Etihad Stadium.
Liverpool hardly looked like getting one here and if anyone deserved to win the game it was Chelsea. They had the ball in the net in each half but Reece James’ powerful first-half drive was ruled out by VAR for offside while Havertz suffered a similar fate with a second-half handball ruling.
Klopp and Liverpool now face a serious fight to make that top-four place, surely the minimum requirement at the start of this season, one almost taken for granted given their past deeds and successes. They are seven points off the top four and in poor form.
Liverpool will need to move their game on to another level fast to get anywhere near that group – starting with Sunday’s game against league leaders Arsenal at Anfield.
Klopp’s verdict?
“I saw a couple of 0-0s against Chelsea over the last few years. The cup finals last season are two of the best games I’ve seen. Tonight was different.”
You said it, Jurgen. You said it.
