The Match, The Stat: Chelsea 2-1 Liverpool
Liverpool's performances are slowly getting better. The results are not.
Top Five Stats
Moisés Caicedo’s goal was the lowest value chance Liverpool have conceded from in league or Europe since Milan in September 2024 (0.04 xG).
Despite being only his third start, Conor Bradley collected his fifth yellow card of 2025/26.
Chelsea didn’t have a shot in the Liverpool box until the 59th minute.
Liverpool have now played four games against the current top six when no other side in the top nine has played more than two.
The three counter attack shots the Reds generated were all put off target.
Match Review
The margins. Oh, the margins. They can eat you alive.
Liverpool have now lost three successive matches; two to injury time goals, the other to the softest penalty you’ll probably see all season. But then they won several games early in the campaign thanks to striking late too. We could very feasibly be in the position of the Reds having drawn six of their seven league matches in 2025/26.
Except against Everton. They’d have still won that.
For the second Saturday in succession, Arne Slot’s side conceded to both the first and last shot of the game. They had started reasonably well as at Crystal Palace, only to crumble at the earliest opportunity. Yet at half time the shot count was 2-0 to Liverpool for efforts in the box even though it was 3-2 to Chelsea overall.
It should’ve been more heavily weighted in the Reds’ favour. Milos Kerkez was guilty of wasting a fabulous position in the box during the first half. He might have been the furthest forward when squandering possession but he was far from alone in the team.
It felt like every Liverpool player was entered into a ‘who can give the ball away in the most frustrating way?’ competition. Nobody won, there were only losers.
With Conor Bradley booked before committing a further foul in the opening 45 minutes, his half time hook was inevitable. Yet rather than go like-for-like with Jeremie Frimpong, Slot switched Dominik Szoboszlai to right-back. Ten minutes later he substituted two more of his starting back four to leave Virgil van Dijk as the last man standing by the 56th minute.
If the flurry of defensive changes don’t reflect well upon the back four, Liverpool were at least level seven minutes later. It was a fine move, with eight of the team playing a role in the pivotal possession sequence. Cody Gakpo’s shot was close range enough to outweigh everything Chelsea mustered in normal time in expected goal terms.
It would also prove to be Liverpool’s final shot on target or Opta-defined big chance though. There could potentially have been more, with both Mohamed Salah and Szoboszlai firing off target at the end of fast breaks. Where the Reds looked like collecting a fortunate point at Palace, they could easily have earned all three here without playing especially well.
Instead they contrived to concede a late winner once again. With the international break set to begin, it leaves an air of crisis permeating the club for the next two weeks. In some ways that feels crazy given they’re only one point behind leaders Arsenal having had a tough run of fixtures.
Even so, Slot needs a margin or two to turn back in his favour. It’s Manchester United up next.
Fair assessment? Too optimistic? They feel close to playing quite well but close ain't going to cut it in this league.
Virgil mentioned in the post match interview that he’d said it was gonna be a difficult season due to what happened off the pitch. So many people are forgetting some of these players are still trying to cope with the loss of a friend, on top of all the changes. But I trust the team and I trust Slot to turn it around. I will now proceed to unfollow most of the LFC fan accounts on instagram, some comments are infuriatingly toxic.