Chelsea was left ruing their wayward finishing as they produced one of the goalless football scores of the weekend in the Premier League. The head coach was fired on Sunday night following a 2-0 home defeat to Aston Villa, with Bruno Saltor – who revealed before the visit of Jurgen Klopp’s side that he had never even picked a team before – taking over on an interim basis. However, Potter’s regime was hampered by the new manager being the same as the old one for Chelsea, who displayed the same problems in front of the goal. The hosts had two goals rightfully disallowed on either side of half-time and squandered a number of other good chances on their way to a stalemate that keeps them in the bottom part of the table, while Liverpool remains eighth.
Chelsea has now amassed a projected goal total of 4.28 and had 39 shots in their last two games, yet they only managed one point and zero goals in those 180 minutes. The Blues’ poor finishing kept Potter’s reign from getting off to a good start, and the pattern continued under Bruno, who took command of his first professional game after spending the previous four years under Potter. Despite the instability at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea got off to a good start, with Joao Felix and Mateo Kovacic both stopped by furious Liverpool defense, albeit both should have used their chances to score sooner.
Alisson then denied Kai Havertz from close range before Reece James’ exquisite volley was ruled out for offside against Enzo Fernandez in the build-up. Kepa Arrizabalaga had a quiet evening as Liverpool’s poor away record continued, albeit he was forced into action just before halftime to save Joe Gomez’s thunderous shot.
The second half began similarly to the first, with Kovacic wasting another wonderful opportunity before Havertz had a feeble shot saved by Alisson, only to see the rebound seep into the net off his arm, with VAR cutting Chelsea’s celebrations short. Chelsea appeared to have lost faith in their ability to score a meaningful goal following that last failure, with the second half meandering to a close in front of a muted crowd, both of which are used to seeing games with more stakes and higher quality than this.
Havertz has a lot of credit among Chelsea fans, almost all of which was earned when he scored the game-winning goal in the 2021 Champions League final, but even the home fans began to turn on the forward amid another poor performance at Stamford Bridge. It almost feels obliged to declare that Havertz is not a No. 9 and that demanding him to execute that job is an unjust weight on him, but there comes a point when he has to accept some responsibility for his missed chances in front of the goal.
The ball then rebounded onto him and into the net, as if to sum up the German international’s troubles in front of goal, only for VAR to establish he had definitely guided it there with his arm. Indeed, Havertz is not a natural No. 9, but what is he? He has failed to consistently perform for Chelsea either played out wide or deeper, and the fact is that the job he currently has to perform for the team is to be their main goalscorer – expectations he is currently failing to meet.
“This was not the most stunning 0-0 I have ever witnessed. I saw two of them last year in the finals between Liverpool and Chelsea – it was really ridiculous,” Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said. “Extremely comparable squads tonight, but entirely different football, because both sides have a completely different degree of confidence. This was how we had to fight anew, how we had to restart our progress. It’s a small step in the right direction.”
“It is the execution that is in front of the goal. They are human beings, and trust must be present,” Chelsea interim boss Bruno Salter said. “We simply need to keep assisting the boys. They’ve also been through a lot – it’s been a difficult season for them. I know they blew opportunities, but what they could most influence was the attitude and effort that was present. At training, they score a lot of goals. But entering a game is an entirely different story. We’ve been working on it for a while, but we need to keep going.”
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