Liverpool had not beaten Chelsea at home in the Premier League since 2012, which incidentally was the last time they won a trophy: the League Cup, after winning a penalty shoot out against Cardiff. Pre-match all the press had done, was link this seasons' game, to the match five years ago, when Liverpool had to win, if they wished to win the league. Liverpool of course did not win, an infamous fall by Steven Gerrard, then saw Demba Ba score and affectively, Liverpool's chance to win the league had gone, unless a miracle happened and Manchester City dropped points.
The build up to the game was filled with articles and segments on the Gerrard 'slip', social media had never stopped making jokes about it; it had been all some rival fans had spoken about in reference to anything they had to say about Liverpool. A video floated around the internet of 'supposed chelsea fans singing 'Mo Salah is bomber', this type of racism and prejudice, shows that many have not learnt anything in the midst of Raheem Sterling being abused by a Chelsea fan back in December, or any other recent incidents. England players had been reduced to heckling and monkey chants away at Montenegro, and in other countries it was still rife, even if you did not watch Serie A for instance, the news still covered Juventus striker, Moise Kean, being reduced to racist chants recently away at Cagliari. Still, not enough are seeing the damage they are causing the game.
Liverpool had to win, simple as, they only led City by two points, and the blue side of Manchester had a game in hand on the Reds. City played first, away at Crystal Palace, and in a match Liverpool were hoping could be tricky, City came away with the three points in a 3-1 victory. Liverpool will obviously have known what happened, and to be honest it would not have changed a thing. Liverpool knew the job at hand, Liverpool knew that they had to win. On paper, this was the toughest game remaining and they knew they still had a great chance of ending their 29 year league drought, when you consider City still have to entertain Tottenham and go down the road to Manchester United.
All eyes were on Jurgen Klopp's lineup and there was not the usual Twitter meltdown when it came out. Klopp, kept the same midfield that played against Porto, Andy Robertson returned from suspension and came in for James Milner at left back and Joel Matip returned at centre half at the expense of Dejan Lovren. I myself was happy with the side, Jordan Henderson was having an impact being given the opportunity to play further forward and Naby Keita had great momentum after scoring 2 goals in 2 games.
The game was preceded by a minutes silence, as it was the 30th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster. The crowd were going to be up for this game, regardless of whether Liverpool were in a title race or not. They had to win today, the day meant too much, they had to put to bed what happened in 2014 roughly around the same time. The first half was pretty even, Liverpool almost took the lead right at the start through Salah, but he volleyed straight at Kepa from Sadio Mane's cross. Mane shot wide from Salah's pass, and you felt just Liverpool were edging closer to something. Liverpool passed the ball around much better than they had, in the first half of recent games, however, on the counter, Chelsea looked quite dangerous, with the pace of Eden Hazard, Callum Hudson-Odoi and Willian.
The second half, saw Liverpool really be assertive, driven by a boisterous and vibrant Anfield atmosphere. The 51st minute saw Salah dispossess Emerson, and the ball fell to the in-form Henderson whose right foot cross was headed by the open Mane. Anfield went mad, the all important opening goal had come. Two minutes had not even passed and things went from bad to worse for Chelsea. No had even recovered from screaming at Mane's opener, when Virgil van Dijk sent the ball out wide, with one of his customary measured balls out from the back, and Salah controlled it. There looked to be minimal danger, when Salah cut in off the right onto his left foot; but then he unleashed an unstoppable shot from just over 25 yards into the top corner, 2-0! Salah then celebrated in a yoga type pose, with his hands in a religious set...it was written. Bar Arsenal at home, Salah, had not scored in a game against a top six side this season, and with all the racial tension before the game, the emphatic nature of the goal and then the celebration was fitting. Anfield, was rocking, you did not even need to turn the volume up on your television, the decibels were going through the roof.
Amidst the noise; Liverpool rode their luck on two occasions, both of them fell to Hazard, and luckily he missed both times. The first one, saw him a control a ball from over the top as Liverpool seemed to still be celebrating their second goal, Alisson came out and Hazard shot against the post, a chance he would normally gobble up. The second chance saw the Belgian not quite be able to wrap his foot around a volley, and Alisson denied him. Liverpool's Brazilian keeper actually pushed it back into play, but luckily for him, it fell to van Dijk who cleared the ball from any more danger. Liverpool went close again later on through Salah and hung on to their 2-0 lead. Overall Liverpool deserved their win, but on another day, they could have been punished for their lapses in concentration.
@DubulDee
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