Chelsea 0 - 0 Liverpool

Pre-Match

The line-ups are up and some unsurprising news from Chelsea, and surprising news for Liverpool. All bad, from a Liverpool perspective, of course. This fucking season, man.

Anyway, the unsurprising news is that N’Golo Kante makes a return to the starting lineup after an injury spell. the surprising news is that neither Mohamed Salah nor Virgil van Dijk are starting. Van Dijk misses the match completely, reportedly due to illness.

Anyway. Something something please don’t suck tonight, Liverpool.

First Half

Five minutes in and Chelsea have nearly gotten in twice, and both times far too easily. Midfield, it seems, is optional today (just kidding, please start midfielding).

Scoreless after 23 minutes. You know things are bad when Bobby Firmino is taking potshots from 30 yards out.

Chelsea appear to open the scoring from a hell of a strike from Reece James, the Blues are flagged for offsides in the build up and VAR confirms it. Thank fuck.

Half an hour in and ZERO (0) touches in Chelsea’s box for Liverpool. This is fine.

Liverpool create their best chance of the half just before the break. The ball falls to Fabinho after a corner, but his well-hit shot is turned behind for another corner.

The Reds finish the half with a tiny bit of a flourish, but it wasn’t a pretty half, at all. Liverpool are lucky not to be trailing at the break, and will need to show much more composure in the box, and much more control in the middle of the park to come out on top tonight.

Second Half

Liverpool are let off the hook again! After allowing Chelsea to once again waltz through the middle of the pitch, the home side actually converts, despite Alisson’s best effort. BUT! VAR! Spotted a handball! Better to be lucky than good, right?

After an hour of shit, Klopp makes his first couple of changes, bringing on Mo Salah and Andy Robertson for Firmino and Tsimikas.

With a quarter of an hour left, Klopp brings on James Milner and Cody Gakpo for Curtis Jones and Darwin Nunez.

Full Time

I’ve watched a lot of BAD Liverpool teams in the past, but 2022/23 rendition is somehow more frustrating than all of them. Because this team should be better. And they’ve occasionally shown flashes of a good football team.

Anyway, they were dire tonight. The Reds amassed a total of 0.35 xG on the night and just 0.02 in the second half. Woof.

They deserved to lose tonight, but somehow came away with a point. Thank Fowler that is over.