Liverpool Beat Chelsea To Return To Top Of Premier League
Goals from Mohammed Salah and Curtis Jones secured a win for Liverpool as they beat Chelsea 2-1 on Sunday at Anfield to move back to the top of the table.
The Red have won 10 games out of 11 since Arne Slot took charge.
Victory takes Liverpool one point ahead of City and four clear of Arsenal, who they face at the Emirates next weekend.
Liverpool’s only defeat under Slot came to Nottingham Forest following September’s international break.
The Dutchman responded by this time leaving all of his South American internationals — Alexis Mac Allister, Luis Diaz, and Darwin Nunez — on the bench after their exertions in recent days across the Atlantic.
The decision to hand Jones just his second league start of the season proved an inspired one as the England international won Liverpool’s penalty and scored the decisive goal.
Chelsea were fortunate still to have 11 men on the field after just six minutes when Tosin Adarabioyo hauled down Diogo Jota.
The Portugal international was still a long way from goal but the incident was almost identical to the one that saw Arsenal defender William Saliba sent off in a 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth on Saturday.
Having survived that scare, Chelsea settled nicely into their rhythm and pushed the home side back by dominating possession.
However, Liverpool’s pace on the break was a constant threat and Chelsea were caught out when Salah fed Jones, who was chopped down by Levi Colwill.
Salah slammed home his 10th goal against his former club from the resulting penalty.
Moments later, Cody Gakpo slotted in at the end of a lightning Liverpool counter-attack, but Salah had strayed offside before delivering the assist.
At the other end, Jackson smashed off the angle of the post and bar in the first sign that Chelsea had some punch to their possession football.
Chelsea, though, had another escape just before half-time when referee John Brooks initially pointed to the spot once more when Jones went down under a challenge from Robert Sanchez.
VAR intervened, however, as the Spanish goalkeeper got a touch on the ball before making contact with Jones.
Within three minutes of the restart for the second half, the Blues were back level as VAR played another helping hand for the visitors.
Jackson latched onto Moises Caicedo’s through ball and coolly slotted past Caoimhin Kelleher for his fifth goal in eight Premier League games.
The Senegalese striker was ruled offside on the field but was shown to be played on by Ibrahima Konate on replay.
Liverpool took just three minutes to restore their lead as Jones timed his run perfectly to control and flick in Salah’s cross.
Chelsea forced Slot’s men to defend their lead for the final 40 minutes but struggled to create clear-cut chances for the equalizer until seven minutes of stoppage time.
Renato Vega headed over Cole Palmer’s free-kick before Christopher Nkunku failed to get a telling touch to Pedro Neto’s teasing cross.
