Est\u00eav\u00e3o struck in the 95th minute to turn Stamford Bridge into a scene of heartbreak for Liverpool, sealing a 2-1 victory and handing the Reds a third successive defeat for the first time under Arne Slot. Cody Gakpo had levelled shortly after the hour mark, but Chelsea\u2019s late perseverance proved decisive.<\/p>\n
Chelsea arrived with a depleted squad and had been written off by many because of injuries and suspension. Wesley Fofana, Tosin Adarabioyo and Levi Colwill were absent through injury and Trevoh Chalobah was unavailable following a red card last weekend. Enzo Maresca selected a rarely used centre-back pairing of Beno\u00eet Badiashile and Josh Acheampong.<\/p>\n
Badiashile was influential in the first half, blocking Dominik Szoboszlai\u2019s close-range effort, and Acheampong dealt physically with Alexander Isak. The situation worsened after the break when both Badiashile and Acheampong were forced off with injuries within 22 minutes of the restart, leaving Maresca with limited options.<\/p>\n
Despite that, Chelsea kept pressing. They harried Liverpool high, forced turnovers and refused to sit deep even as their defensive resources dwindled. Reece James and Jorrel Hato formed a late partnership that limited Liverpool to half-chances, enabling the home side to claim what the performance merited.<\/p>\n
For Liverpool the defeat continued a worrying sequence. They have now lost at Crystal Palace, Galatasaray and Chelsea under Slot\u2019s watch, producing underwhelming displays in each defeat. Giorgi Mamardashvili was a rare bright spot on his Premier League debut.<\/p>\n
Attacking figures failed to impose themselves. Mohamed Salah produced an underwhelming display, Isak missed a gilt-edged chance in the first half, Gakpo scored but was often stifled and Florian Wirtz was unable to make a decisive difference from the bench. Wirtz\u2019s \u00a3116 million ($156.2 million) price tag has intensified scrutiny; he began on the bench, was introduced at the break and had an immediate positive impact, coming close to creating an assist a minute after the restart had Salah been more clinical.<\/p>\n
Ibrahima Konat\u00e9 was substituted in the 56th minute as Ryan Gravenberch was used as a makeshift defender. With Giovanni Leoni sidelined by an ACL injury, Joe Gomez is Liverpool\u2019s only senior alternative at centre back and Slot faces selection dilemmas during the international break.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Est\u00eav\u00e3o’s 95th-minute goal gave Chelsea a 2-1 victory and left Liverpool with three losses in a row.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3549,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,175],"tags":[299,1089,872],"class_list":["post-3550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","tag-arne-slot","tag-chelsea-struggles","tag-cody-gakpo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3550\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3549"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}