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26 min A free-kick from Neto is headed away as far as Gusto, whose mishit volley from 25 yards is blocked. Neto then swings in a cross that is claimed with authority by Mamardashvili.
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23 min Liverpool have been a bit scruffy since the goal, that Szoboszlai chance notwithstanding, and Chelsea are enjoying plenty of possession
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20 min “I fear David Hindle is inadvertently disproving his own point,” says Matt Dony. “Suarez played well enough, but only scored four goals in his first half season (after arriving in January), and only 11 league goals in his first full season. (He did hit the post an improbable number of times, though. I think he set a record!)
“It was only really after a year at Liverpool he became the force of nature we knew and loved(!). Wirtz isn’t personally responsible for the insane price tag. He has plenty of time to adjust and come good. I’d say Slot has earned an awful lot of trust and patience with fans.”
I’ll defer to your superior everything but I remember thinking during the 3-1 win over Man Utd, maybe six weeks after he signed, that Suarez might be touched with genius. But the broader point is you could make a helluvan XI out of players who struggled early on after making a big-money move.
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Updated at 18.54 CEST
19 min: Chance for Liverpool
Gakpo surges into the area in the inside-left channel and cuts the ball back carefully towards Szoboszlai eight yards out. He opens his body to sidefoot a first-time shot that is crucially blocked by Badiashile.
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Updated at 18.52 CEST
17 min Mac Allister was also partially at fault for the goal. He tried to nick a short pass from Gusto to Caicedo, couldn’t quite get to it and that allowed Caicedo to move into the space he had vacated. Details, details.
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Moises Caicedo has given Chelsea the lead with a roof-raiser. It came, sort of, from an error by Mamaradashvili, who received an awkward pass from Van Dijk and played a loose return ball that Van Dijk could only chest out of play for a throw-in.
Chelsea recycled possession and quickly moved the ball forward to Caicedo. He lost Mac Allister, ran at a backpedalling defence and arrowed a shot into the top corner from 22 yards. Mamardashvili got a slight touch, diving to his right, but in truth he did well to manage that. It was a screamer.
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Updated at 18.53 CEST
GOAL! Chelsea 1-0 Liverpool (Caicedo 14)
Pick that blighter out!
Moises Caicedo unleashes a cracker to give the Blues the lead! Photograph: Chris Lee/CFC/Getty ImagesThat was some strike by Caicedo! Photograph: Adam Davy/PAShare
Updated at 18.50 CEST
10 min Nothing to report so far with Giorgi Mamardashvili. He was pressed very early on, in his own six-yard box, but looked unperturbed and passed the ball calmly across to Conor Bradley.
If Euro 2024 is anything to go by, Mamardashvili is disgustingly overqualified for the job of back-up goalkeeper.
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8 min Kerkez wins the first corner of the game for Liverpool. Gakpo clips it in, Sanchez muffs his punch and the ball runs across the area to safety. The referee had blown for a foul on Sanchez anyway.
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6 min Gusto fails to control Badiashile’s angled pass over the top after making a good run off the ball. Mac Allister was getting back anyway and Gusto might have been offside.
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5 min A fairly cagey start. Liverpool have had more of the ball but there’s nothing in it really.
Enzo Fernández gets a challenge in on compatriot Alexis Mac Allister. Photograph: Javier García/ShutterstockShare
Updated at 18.39 CEST
2 min Chelsea have started with Reece James at right-back and Malo Gusto in midfield, which is a bit of a surprise. This is their revised line-up.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1ish) Sanchez; James, Acheampong, Badiashile, Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo; Neto, Enzo, Garnacho; Joao Pedro.
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1 min Peep peep! Liverpool kick off from left to right as we watch.
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“The problem with ‘but he’s a nice guy’ (Wirtz) is that he is also a very expensive footballer and has to produce on the field,” writes David Hindle. “Luis Suarez, splutter, cough, splutter, was not most people’s definition of a charmer. But he produced a heck of a lot of goals, and took to the game in England like a duck to water. If you gave fans the choice right now….well, you know which way it would go.”
He’s been there two months though. Remember Thierry Henry’s first two months at Arsenal? We’ve all gone mad.
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Arsenal beat West Ham 2-0 at the Emirates to move above Liverpool, at least for a couple of hours. This is how the Premier League table looks right here, right now.
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Updated at 18.32 CEST
And Enzo Maresca’s
It’s nice [to play Liverpool]. It’s a chance to learn and we’ve prepared as best we can.
[On Chelsea’s injuries] Nine players are unfortunately out, plus we have two or three players [who are carrying injuries*] We will try to find solutions and hopefully we can have a good day – for us and for the fans.
* Including Moises Caicedo and Joao Pedro.
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Arne Slot’s pre-match thoughts
[On Giorgi Mamardashvili’s Premier League debut] In the last two games, Ali [Alisson] was involved more than I would like. Giorgi did very well against Southampton so it’s not his first start for us – he’s an experienced goalkeeper and he’s in a good place.
[On the inclusion of Cody Gakpo ahead of Florian Wirtz] We have a lot of games, and you see around the world that teams have to change one or two players. Then before the game starts you try to decide what is the best fit for that particular player. You can’t compare the playing style of Chelsea with the playing style of Crystal Palace.
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“On the subject of Florian Wirtz, for anyone who hasn’t seen, Sky has just posted a lovely collection of interviews with some of his former friends and coaches,” writes Maximilian Sanderson. “Here in Germany he is loved and memed in almost equal measure (the latter affectionately so, and mostly thanks to his viral potato ranking video during the Euros), so I didn’t fully know what to expect, but he seems like a genuinely decent guy with a good support network around him. He might not be starting tonight but I reckon it won’t be long before the goals start to flow…”
If he’s so good, why didn’t he score 44 goals in his first five games? Eh?
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Updated at 18.14 CEST
A Liverpool fan writes
“Having spent nearly f-o-u-r hours making the one-hour journey to my mother-in-law’s, I’m not in the best of moods,” chirps Matt Dony. “Thanks, M4 closures. Big help. Nothing quite like crawling through Port Talbot at below walking pace.
“Anyway. If this was last year, I’d have been fairly confident. Well, not confident exactly. I don’t think I’ve ever been genuinely confident before a football match. But I’d have been a lot more relaxed than I am now. The late goals have been tremendous fun, but wildly unsustainable. The performances have had their moments, but we’re still in the waiting-to-click phase.
“You never wish ill on players, but I’m relieved to be facing Chelsea minus Cole Palmer. Even so, I’m not counting on still being top of the league in a few hours time. And on Wirtz being benched; It’s the earliest of early days. He’s an astonishingly talented footballer, and I liked everything I saw of him last season. Still, I can’t help but remember watching Naby Keita tear it up for Leipzig…”
On Wirtz, the Pires Principle dictates that any judgement on creative players who are new to English football should be deferred until their second season.
Emphasis on ‘should’, because there is overwhelming evidence to suggest we’ve all gone completely mad.
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Updated at 18.06 CEST
Has Arne Slot taken Liverpool as far as he can?
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Updated at 18.01 CEST
Read Barney Ronay on Florian Wirtz
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Cause and effect latest
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Team news: Wirtz on the bench
The teenager Josh Acheampong replaces the suspended Trevoh Chalobah in the Chelsea defence. That’s one of four changes from the side that started last weekend’s 3-1 defeat at home to Brighton. Benoit Badiashile, Malo Gusto and Alejandro Garnacho come in for Jarrel Hato, Andrey Santos (who is injured) and Estevao. That means Reece James is likely to start in midfield.
Giorgi Mamardashvili, who was probably the best goalkeeper at Euro 2024, deputises for the injured Alisson. Arene Slot makes one other change, with Cody Gakpo preferred to Florian Wirtz in attack. Wirtz is part of a formidable Liverpool subs bench.
Chelsea (4-2-3-1) Sanchez; Gusto, Acheampong, Badiashile, Cucurella; James, Caicedo; Neto, Enzo, Garnacho; Joao Pedro.
Substitutes: Jorgensen, Slonina, Hato, Lavia, Emenalo, Buonanotte, Estevao, Gittens, Guiu.
Liverpool (4-3-3) Mamardashvili; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Kerkez; Szoboszlai, Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Isak, Gakpo.
Substitutes: Woodman, Gomez, Endo, Wirtz, Chiesa, Jones, Ekitike, Robertson, Frimpong.
Referee Anthony Taylor.
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Updated at 18.07 CEST
Preamble
The world champions meet the English champions at Stamford Bridge tonight, but nobody will be talking about the glories of the recent past. Chelsea and Liverpool are both in contention for the Premier League Crisis Baton™ – passed each week to the team that a hysterical media deems to be in crisis – after suffering a dip in form towards the end of September.
Chelsea have taken only one point from their last three Premier League games. Liverpool have lost their last two in all competitions and didn’t even play that well in the seven straight wins before that.
In times of trouble, tough games are a mixed blessing. Enzo Maresca and Arne Slot know that, if they win tonight, the negative chatter will stop just like that. But if they lose, the external noise will be amplified.
Kick off 5.30pm.
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Updated at 18.00 CEST
