Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool — Player Ratings

Liverpool had to settle for a draw against Chelsea as Axel Disasi’s leveller cancelled out Luis Diaz’ early strike on Sunday afternoon.

Chelsea welcomed Liverpool to Stamford Bridge a couple days on from the immense transfer saga regarding Moises Caicedo, as their off-field battle continued on the pitch.

Jurgen Klopp’s side began the new Premier League campaign in a fiery manner, causing a new-look Chelsea side numerous problems.

Mohamed Salah nearly haunted his old club in the opening minutes as he linked up with Cody Gakpo before seeing his right-footed effort cannon off the crossbar.

Despite Liverpool being the more dominant side in the first half an hour, Chelsea had chances of their own with Alisson denying Nicolas Jackson from close range following a dangerous ball from Chelsea captain Reece James.

Twenty minutes in saw Liverpool break the deadlock as a nice combination between Dominik Szoboszlai and Alexis Mac Allister unleashed Salah, who beautifully picked out Luis Diaz to slot home from close range.

The visitors thought they had doubled their lead soon after as the Egyptian King slotted home after an outstanding pass by Trent Alexander-Arnold. The forward, however, was deemed offside by VAR.

The decision seemed to shift the momentum of the game with the hosts beginning to stamp their authority on procedures. Their threat was awarded as debutant Axel Disasi was quickest to latch onto Ben Chilwell’s header and slot past the onrushing Alisson.

The Blues thought they had grabbed a second moments later as Chilwell dribbled past Alisson to fire into an empty net, but similarly to Salah, the defender was marginally off.

Chelsea continued their pressure as the first-half drew to a close and Jackson was inches away from sending Mauricio Pochettino’s side in at the interval leading. The Senegalese fired over from close range following an inviting cross by James.

The second-half proved to be less eventful as the first but Liverpool, on occasions, were margins from finding a second goal.

The Reds’ first chance after the break fell to Virgil van Dijk who saw a curling effort whistle narrowly wide of Robert Sanchez’ goal.

Substitute Darwin Nunez also came inches from scoring as his deflected effort flew just wide of the post.

Alisson, just like last campaign, was required to produce heroics to make up for Liverpool’s defensive fragilities. The Brazilian was on task to deny Chilwell from close range on the hour mark to earn Liverpool their first point of the season.