Chelsea and Liverpool did not manage to decide between themselves following a poor match, marked by the return to competition as holder of the Frenchman N’Golo Kanté.
Desperately in search of momentum for the end of the season, Chelsea and Liverpool parted ways with a 0-0 which does not help anyone, Tuesday, in a late match of the 8th day of the Premier League.
Liverpool remain in 8th place but still seven lengths from the qualifying places for the Champions League. Chelsea, for its first match following the departure of Graham Potter on Sunday, remains in 11th place.
The composition of the Reds had something to question at kick-off with Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold or Mohamed Salah on the bench. For their part, Chelsea fielded a reinforced midfield with the tenure of N’Golo Kanté, promoted captain for his second game since August, alongside Mateo Kovacic and Enzo Fernandez.
Flat brainwave in Liverpool
This match was almost in every way consistent with what we might expect. The Londoners have confirmed that their main problem remains realism in front of goal, while Liverpool, far too vulnerable outside this season, had above all come to reassure themselves.
From the 4th minute, a nice ride from Joao Felix had allowed the Portuguese to present himself once morest Alisson but a few micro-seconds lost trying to get back on his right foot allowed Joel Matip to come back in extremis.
A few seconds later, it was Ibrahima Konaté who caught up with a hazardous and too soft clearance in the middle, intervening just in front of his line to prevent Kovacic, who had dribbled past the Reds goalkeeper, from opening the scoring. .
As too often this season, Kai Havertz was particularly clumsy in front of goal (12th, 29th), but also unfortunate, when a goal was refused to him for contact with the ball with his arm, on a favorable counter once morest Alisson (50th ).
Chelsea, who had already had a goal disallowed for Reece James due to a team-mate offside, might also have made the difference when Kovacic, launched by Kanté, appeared alone in front of goal (47th), but the Croatian sent his strike into the stands of Stamford Bridge.
Aston Villa on an excellent series
As for the Mersey club, apart from a nice strike from Joe Gomez spectacularly boxed by Kepa in added time in the first act, the offensive encephalogram remained fairly flat, even following Salah entered in the 65th.
In the other matches of the evening, Aston Villa, which had caused the dismissal of Potter by going to win Saturday at Chelsea (2-0), went to beat Leicester (2-1), which Brendan Rodgers had left on Sunday.
Unaï Emery’s men are on an excellent streak with 16 points taken from a possible 18 in their last six meetings. Recovered to 7th place with 44 points, they are ambushed in the race for Europe, while the Foxes remain penultimate.
In front of them, Brighton went to win the derby in the south of England at 18th, Bournemouth (2-0) and advanced to 6th place, only 4 units from the top 4 qualifier for the C1 next year.
At the bottom of the table, Leeds won a capital victory at home by overthrowing Nottingham Forest (2-1). The Peacocks are 13th but very far from being out of business since the first relegation, Bournemouth has only two points less than them, just like Nottingham Forest (17th).
Forest coach Steve Cooper seems the ideal candidate to become the 13th coach dismissed this season in the top flight, while the name of Patrick Vieira, recently sacked from Crystal Palace, is circulating on the side of the City Ground.
