We must act in time before it is too late. In the aftermath of Manchester City’s last-minute victory against Arsenal, the urgency was the same for Chelsea and Liverpool, with a double objective in mind: above all not to let City fly to the top of the Premier League while defeating a competitor direct. But Blues and Reds neutralized, Sunday, January 2, at Stamford Bridge (2-2), offering the Citizens the right to pick the fruits of their spectacular clash.
Liverpool, however, had everything in place to spend a quiet evening and steal second place from their opponent of the day. Jürgen Klopp’s players only needed 25 minutes to lead from two goals. Sadio Mané was the first to strike, eliminating Edouard Mendy to conclude from the left after a failed intervention from Trevoh Chalobah (9th). Mohamed Salah made the break after being found on the right, with a nice dive in the closed angle (26th).
At this moment, mass seemed to have already been said. The only concern among the Reds was then to wonder how they were going to do without their two scorers, who will participate in the CAN (Salah with Egypt and Mané with Senegal) from January 9 to February 6. But with no cloud on the horizon, Chelsea returned to the game just before the break.
Mohamed Salah is involved in 25 Premier League goals this season (16 goals, 9 assists). #CHELIV
More than any other player in the 5 major European leagues. pic.twitter.com/rTfIGVk9zA
– PokerStars Sports FR (@PSSportsFR) January 2, 2022
Mateo Kovacic woke up the stands with a magical volley from outside the area (42nd), an unexpected conclusion after a free kick from Marcos Alonso returned by Reds goalkeeper Caoimhín Kelleher. On their way, the Blues hit the mark three minutes later thanks to Christian Pulisic, perfectly found by N’Golo Kanté in depth and applied on his volley in the race (45th + 1).
The match remained very open after the break, but the goals stopped raining. Partly thanks to Edouard Mendy. The Chelsea keeper didn’t let anything go, even when his opponents were eventually flagged offside. The Senegalese, who will also play in the CAN, pulled out all the stops in the 57th minute with a sumptuous parade against Mohamed Salah when he was a little far from his goal line.
The score stuck at 2-2. No winner has been named, but City are rubbing their hands. The English champion is now 10 points ahead of his runner-up Chelsea and 11 over third, Liverpool. A nice mattress that already allows him to be the big favorite at his own estate in the spring.