Liverpool surrendered their spot at the Premier League (PL) summit to Arsenal going into the international break after they were beaten 2-1 by Chelsea at the death, marking their fourth successive PL defeat in London.
Key stats
- Aged 18y 163d, Estevao is the second youngest Brazilian to score in the Premier League, after Rafael for Manchester United in November 2008 (18y 122d)
- Liverpool have conceded four goals in the last 15 minutes of the second half, only Nottingham Forest (five) have conceded more in the Premier League this season
- Liverpool have scored in their last 41 games in the Premier League, their longest run of games with a goal in the competition
Highlights
Analysis
Moises Caicedo put in a battling display for Chelsea against Liverpool, commanding the centre and contributing a stunning goal to open the scoring.
The contest was an even affair in terms of momentum, but it was Chelsea who capitalised most.
Match report
Liverpool have been far from convincing in their PL title defence, and their flaws were once again exposed in the opening stages at Stamford Bridge.
Some weak midfield play from the Reds afforded Moisés Caicedo, a man who was tantalisingly close to signing for them before joining Chelsea, the freedom of west London outside the penalty area, and he made them pay in brutal fashion as he unleashed an absolute rasper from 25 yards into the top corner.
Arne Slot’s men almost found an instant response through Dominik Szoboszlai, but after some neat wing play from Cody Gakpo laid the ball on a plate for the unmarked Hungarian, a heroic Benoît Badiashile block denied what looked to be a certain goal.
Chelsea’s dogged off-the-ball work was frustrating the Reds, who impressed in flashes, but were uncharacteristically wasteful in the final third, as Milos Kerkez evidenced when he simply had to square the ball to give Mo Salah a tap in inside the six yard box, and somehow found Marc Cucurella with his pass.
In truth, the visitors could probably count themselves a little fortunate to go into the break just a goal behind, as five minutes before HT, Alejandro Garnacho’s effort from the edge of the area bounced away off the outside of the post.
Slot had seen enough by HT and decided to introduce Florian Wirtz at the break to give his side some fresh attacking impetus.
His decision almost paid immediate dividends when Wirtz found Salah inside the area within 20 seconds of the restart, but the Egyptian could only skew a right-footed effort wide of the post.
Shortly after the hour mark though, Liverpool finally broke Chelsea’s resistance.
Szoboszlai’s delivery was brought down well by Alexander Isak, but before Liverpool’s £125m-man could get a shot off, Gakpo had pounced and thundered into the back of the net to level the scores.
Chelsea losing their two starting centre backs to injury handed the initiative to Liverpool in the closing stages, but it was the Blues who actually looked the likelier to take all three points.
Jamie Gittens, Caicedo and Estêvão all forced Giorgi Mamardashvili into smart stops in the final 10 minutes, but those stops proved to be temporary reprieves.
The Blues kept probing until the very end, and their endeavour yielded the ultimate reward in stoppage time when Estêvão slid in at the far post to turn home Cucurella’s delivery and inflict a stoppage-time defeat on Liverpool for the second weekend running after they produced so many late-late shows themselves at the start of the campaign.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Moisés Caicedo (Chelsea)
Post-match comments
Liverpool boss Arne Slot in his press conference:
"I think two very good teams were on the pitch today.
"First half, unfortunately for us, the only chance they had in the first half goes into the top corner. We created three open chances - Kerkez, Dom and Alex with the header - but I felt the game was equal.
"Second half we started off really well. It wasn't a surprise we equalised. The last 15 minutes it was end-to-end. We had chances, they had chances to win. In the end, we conceded a last-minute goal.
"Last season we lost against Chelsea as well. Stamford Bridge is always difficult. We were very close to a result."
Chelsea's Marc Cucurella to Sky Sports:
"We deserved this moment.
"It's not been an easy week for us, but when you play in the Champions League midweek you have two chances to succeed.
"We built the momentum connection with the fans. We started the game in the in the right way and we deserved the win - we're very happy to get to the international break with three points."