Liverpool 0-1 Chelsea: Tuchel’s side continue their unbeaten run, Mount makes the difference

Mason Mount-Chelsea

Liverpool slipped to a 1-0 defeat at Anfield to Chelsea in the Premier League earlier tonight.

The Reds have now lost five consecutive home games for the first time in their entire history and tonight’s defeat has put a huge dent on their top-four hopes.

Liverpool are in desperate need of Champions League football next season but the likes of Manchester United, Chelsea and Leicester City continue to pull clear of them in the table.

Manager Thomas Tuchel will be delighted with his team’s organisation and performance at Anfield tonight.

Chelsea started the game brightly and Timo Werner could have put the away side ahead early on in the first half. The German was clean through on goal but his effort was fired straight into Alisson.

 Werner made amends midway through the first half when he put the ball into the net but his goal was judged offside after a VAR review.

Jurgen Klopp decided to bring Fabinho back into the side for tonight’s game but the Brazilian has not played in recent weeks due to injury problems and he was lacking in match fitness. Liverpool struggled with him and Kabak at the heart of their defence and Chelsea caused all sorts of problems for the home side.

Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount was at the heart of everything impressive from the visitors and he ended up scoring the match-winning goal towards the end of the first half.

The England midfielder created several good chances for his teammates and the likes of Werner will be disappointed to have failed to score.

As for Liverpool, Mohamed Salah was the only bright spark for the hosts but the Egyptian was taken off early on in the second half and it proved to be a baffling decision from Jurgen Klopp.

The likes of Mane and Firmino were abysmal throughout the game but the Liverpool manager chose to keep them on the pitch and take off his top scorer when his side was chasing the game.

The Reds needed some creativity in the second half but Klopp decided to keep Naby Keita on the bench and he opted for James Milner instead.

Although the players were quite poor on the balance of play, Jurgen Klopp will have to shoulder some of the responsibility for tonight’s defeat.

The Liverpool manager needed to show some flexibility in terms of tactics and his substitutions were quite poor.

Liverpool kept on playing into Chelsea’s hands with their high defensive line and Klopp failed to make the necessary tactical adjustments. The Reds missed the pace of van Dijk and Gomez at the back and they were caught out by the likes of Mount and Werner time and again.

Chelsea could have easily added to their tally in the second half but the Blues were wasteful with their chances as well.

Liverpool failed to create any clear cut opportunities to score but the Reds will feel that they could have got on the score sheet had the officials done their job properly.

Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante handled the ball in the second half in his own box but Martin Atkinson did not award the home side a deserved penalty.

The win tonight takes Chelsea into the top four and the Blues will be hoping to climb further up the table in the coming weeks.

They are currently unbeaten in 10 matches under Thomas Tuchel.

Meanwhile, Liverpool drop down to 7th after their fifth consecutive home defeat and it remains to be seen whether they can bounce back anytime soon.