Chelsea 1 Liverpool 1: Disasi earns point with Pochettino’s new-look Blues unlucky not to beat Reds
MAURICIO POCHETTINO is already having a positive impact on Chelsea as his new side came from behind to earn a point with a high-energy performance.
Axel Disasi, the £39million central-defensive recruit from Monaco, marked his debut with a first-half equaliser to cancel out a Luis Diaz opener.
And the Blues already have the mark of their new Argentinian boss stamped all over them, as Pochettino looks to bring sanity to the Todd Boehly madhouse.
With his countryman Enzo Fernandez to the fore in a dominant midfield display, Chelsea earned a well-deserved point after Jurgen Klopp’s had made a lightning start to their Premier League campaign at Stamford Bridge.
Pochettino is hoping to make Brighton midfielder Moises Caicedo the 25th signing of Boehley’s madcap reign after seeing off Liverpool interest in the Ecuadorian.
And there are signs that after scatter-gunning the transfer market with almost three-quarters of a billion pounds, Boehly has a boss who can see clarity amid the mayhem.
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Pochettino, given a rousing reception despite his Tottenham past, named six Englishmen in his first competitive starting eleven as Blues boss.
But he almost lost one of them in the opening minutes when Carney Chukwuemeka was lucky to escape with a booking for booting Ibrahima Konate in the chest.
Liverpool were swiftly into poetry-in-motion mode, a fluid blur of red, washing over Chelsea - their Hungarian midfield new recruit Domink Szoboszlai a duck to water.
Mo Salah curled an 18-yarder against the bar shortly before the opener.
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Alexis Mac Allister, filling in as a midfield anchor man after the Saudis had plundered Klopp’s resources, picked out Salah with a gorgeous long pass and the Egyptian played a low angled centre for Diaz to slide in and score.
Chelsea livened up - Ben Chilwell shoved over by Konate but denied a penalty, then Nicolas Jackson wriggling past two defenders and dragging a shot wide.
But Liverpool thought they had doubled their lead when Trent Alexander-Arnold, drifting into midfield, released Salah to poke past Robert Sanchez, only for VAR to catch the Egyptian leaning marginally offside.
Spurred by their reprieve, Chelsea netted twice in the space of two minutes - though only one of them counted.
Liverpool failed to fully clear a corner, an Enzo Fernandez cross was headed out to Chilwell who nodded into the six-yard box, where Disasi pipped Alisson to the ball and scuffed it home.
Chilwell then found the net himself from an Enzo pass but after walking it past Alisson he was ruled offside.
After four consecutive goalless draws between these clubs, this was likeably chaotic.
Jackson ought to have handed Chelsea a half-time but when new skipper Reece James squared it, he spooned from seven yards.
But Liverpool started the second period as they had begun the first - Virgil Van Dijk channelled his inner Glenn Hoddle with a bending 20-yarder which narrowly cleared the bar and Diaz having a near-post header deflected wide off Jackson’s hand.
Chilwell, somehow Chelsea’s chief attacking threat from left wing-back, had a point-blank shot saved by Alisson.
Enzo was starting to look like the world-champion midfielder he is, crunching into tackles and rousing the Matthew Harding Stand, then showing plenty of craft and composure on the ball.
With Chelsea ascendant, Klopp sent for Darwon Nunez and Curtis Jones in place of Cody Gakpo and Diogo Jota.
When Salah was hooked in favour of youngster Ben Doak, he showed his displeasure by hurling the bandaging on his right wrist to the turf.
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The tantrums were contagious - Klopp soon headbutted the ground in frustration when a free-kick went against his team.
Jackson and Mac Allister were both booked by ref Anthony Taylor for showing imaginary cards - the Premier League cracking down severely on the menace of mime.
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