Liverpool and Chelsea played out an entertaining 2-2 draw to share the points at Stamford Bridge with Premier League leaders Manchester City the real winners.
A draw leaves Pep Guardiola’s men 10 points clear with many feeling today’s result could spell the end of Liverpool and Chelsea’s title charge.
The home side found themselves two goals down inside 26 minutes as Sadio Mane opened the scoring before Mohamed Salah netted a stunning individual goal from a tight angle.
Chelsea needed something special to get back in the game and Mateo Kovacic delivered on 42 minutes with an exquisite volley from the edge of the box.
Christian Pulisic levelled the score on the stroke of half-time to cap off a frantic first half of football.
picks out three players who impressed and two who struggled in today’s thrilling draw.
Mohamed Salah
The Egyptian has scored several stunning goals this season and today’s was another to add to his highlights reel.
A lofted ball over the top of Chelsea’s backline from Trent Alexander-Arnold found Salah in space but he still had plenty to do from a tight angle.
A deft touch and a turn of pace to bypass Marcos Alonso was done so with ease as he kept his balance to slot past Edouard Mendy.
Mateo Kovacic
Kovacic’s wondergoal was just the icing on the cake during a disciplined performance from the Chelsea midfielder.
Alongside N’Golo Kante, the pair took control in the middle of the park and helped keep Fabinho quiet.
Kovacic provided plenty of assurance to his defence and pushed forward to support the attack when required as he ran away with the man of the match award.
As for the goal, the perfect strike of the ball on the volley, while walking backwards at the time of contact, is surely a goal of the season contender.
Edouard Mendy
Playing in his last match before heading off to the Africa Cup of Nations, the Senegalese certainly set the bar high for Kepa Arrizabalaga to follow.
Mendy made several key saves, most notably denying Salah’s curled effort in the second half to keep his side in the match.
The shot-stopper also showed off his quick reactions with a fine one-handed save to stop Diogo Jota’s powerful strike, which was later ruled offside.
Fabinho
By the Brazilian’s standards, Fabinho struggled to have any real impact in today’s encounter.
Far too often Kante and Kovacic got the better of him and he was slow to react to second balls.
Liverpool really needed Fabinho at his brilliant best but he looked sluggish and spent far too much time chasing lost causes instead of contributing.
Virgil van Dijk
Another Liverpool player who looked slightly off the pace and endured plenty of duels in the air with Kai Havertz.
Van Dijk also came in for criticism from Graeme Souness for his role in Pulisic’s equaliser as he failed to come across and make the tackle after the American broke the backline.
‘Why doesn’t Van Dijk come across there? He’s just running in a straight line back to his own goal,’ he said.
‘Salah to begin with… then a nice dink, but come over, come over. He’s not even sprinting.’
The Dutchman will certainly want to move on from today’s match in a hurry.
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