Chelsea were overpowered and outclassed as they sustained a brutal 4-1 defeat against Premier League leaders Liverpool on Wednesday. The Blues were second best from beginning to end as Jurgen Klopp's team ran rampant at Anfield against a group of players who looked like deer caught in headlights at times. The scoreline would have been worse, too, had Darwin Nunez not hit the woodwork an incredible four times in the game.
The Blues went into the game sat 10th in the top-flight, but they put up less of a fight against Liverpool than Championship team Norwich City did in their FA Cup clash at the weekend. The defensive line up of Axel Disasi, Thiago Silva, Benoit Badiashile and, the worst culprit, Ben Chilwell were floundering right from the start and left poor goalkeeper Dorde Petrovic completely exposed throughout the first half.
Chilwell gave away the ball while Silva and Badiashile did little to stop Diogo Jota from powering through and scoring the first Liverpool goal. Then Chilwell left Raheem Sterling on his own down the left by wrapping himself up with Jota to allowt Conor Bradley double the lead. Badiashile then gave away a penalty, but Nunez's wastefulness from the spot was the only thing that kept Liverpool from being out of sight by half-time.
Chelsea went 48 minutes without hiavinga shot and by the time Enzo Fernandez's tame long-range effort went into Alisson's hands in first-half stoppage time, Liverpool had created 15 attempts. So miserable were they that coach Mauricio Pochettino had to make three changes at half-time.
The changes did have an influence, though, as after going 3-0 down following a Dominik Szoboszlai header, Carney Chukwuemeka drove forward and found Christopher Nkunku to lash in a consolation with 20 minutes left to play. Shortly afterwards, they should have had a penalty for a foul on the France forward, but their protests were waved away by the referee for the second time in the game.
There was no such turnaround, though, as Liverpool went on to hit the bar once again before Luis Diaz slid in his team's fourth after Badiashile lost track of the Colombian at the back post.
GOAL rates Pochettino's players from Anfield...