Chelsea player ratings vs Liverpool: Cole Palmer is heating up again! Blues breeze past drunken champions in huge boost to Premier League top-five hopes

Chelsea moved level on points with fourth-placed Newcastle after beating Premier League champions Liverpool 3-1 in the Sunday sunshine. The Reds, fresh off being confirmed as the new kings of England, played with a carelessness and complacency of team with nothing to play for, allowing the youthful Blues to pounce and take advantage.

The hosts didn't waste any time in taking the lead, with the deadlock broken inside three minutes. Pedro Neto scampered away down the right and cut the ball back all the way through the Liverpool box to Enzo Fernandez, who had enough time to set himself before slotting past Alisson Becker.

Just before the break, Chelsea had the ball in the net again through Noni Madueke after he rounded Alisson, but the flag was raised for offside against Nicolas Jackson, who was standing way behind the last line when set through by Romeo Lavia.

Shortly after the interval, the Blues had their second in ludicrous circumstances. Cole Palmer's cut-back to Madueke was intercepted by Wataru Endo, but when Virgil van Dijk went to clear the loose ball, he hit it straight at Jarell Quansah's groin and it bobbled backwards into the net.

Palmer wanted a goal for himself and so nearly got it when he drifted in from the left and looked to sneak a shot under Alisson, only for his effort to bounce out off the post.

It was all set up for a nervy finish when Van Dijk pulled one back, rising high to head home and reduce Chelsea's advantage to one, but the Blues were given the opportunity to restore their two-goal advantage when Quansah tripped Moises Caicedo inside the penalty area in stoppage time, and Palmer took the chance to end his 18-game goal drought with a superb spot kick in the final seconds.

GOAL rates Chelsea's players from Stamford Bridge...