1 hour ago, RIP Mourinho said:

Costa's worst performance this season and Willian has shown he should never start ahead of Pedro. Willian is often credited for his ability to track back yet lost his man at the back post for their goal. 

Thought from the start we should have gone with three in the middle and controlled the game and created more when Fabregas came on. Definitely something to consider next weekend against Arsenal.

Watch us switch to 5-3-2 and barely lose a game again.

Performance about what you would expect and the point was a good result made better by spurs draw and Arsenal loss.

Matic did struggle a bit but I thought Kante got stronger as the game went on and actually one of his best recent performances.

Luiz was excellent not much seen of Alonso in an attacking sense.

I think the bigger point is we probably need a midfielder who offers a touch more than matic

Fab looked great when he came on, but it's always easier at the end. By the time he was on milner's legs had gone.

1 hour ago, STATS said:

Then next season you will be crying out for him. Think over the remaining games of the season, how much points Hazard will win us which he will. Such knee-jerk people. A title is won over 38 games. All quality players have a blip. And I am not defending him but the general team approach did not help Hazard tonight.

Well, I'm nicely surprised how well and how much players like Alonso and Moses have done this season. Conte seems to be a man for the team, not the individual. So on that basis I believe with the Oscar money added to maybe 100 million plus for Eden would allow Conte to make some very good signings. Eden most consistent contribution is getting fouled. Yes he's been beyond great at times and nobody expects amazing every game but he has a habit of disappearing for too long. Even Conte has dragged him off twice recently. It's not a talent thing as much as a mental attitude thing with him in my eyes.

Like a few others, I've calmed down after the frustration of not beating the scousers and we're definitely in a great position, but I reckon there would be life after Eden. In the meantime I'll just hope he can get himself back into his best form and make me eat my words.

We were dreadful but that penalty miss is grating on me. If only diego if only 

Let's not be so quick to point fingers at our manager for subbing eden, he hardly has a flawless record for pens with us does he? 

In any case how many of us would have turned down this football day? Had you offered me this, up at halftime, miss a pen, only draw but arsenal lose and Spurs draw you are absolutely right I would have been happy with that. Liverpool and Spurs gain nothing on us, arsenal fall a point further back. This was a good result and a good day of football for us. 

A somewhat tense affair littered with mistakes from both sides, none the less an entertaining match. I would have taken the draw before kick-off, EPL is a marathon not a sprint and the outcome is seldom resolved by the end of January. By the way, if someone had said we would be top at Christmas and 9 points clear at the end of January we would have bitten their arm off. I don't think we would have worried to much about how we accomplished such a feat, in fact would anyone care a toss.

There are 15 matches left, our points difference is equal to close on 3 matches, that leaves the chasers 12 matches to overhaul us. The pressure is on the chasers and not us, we are top and have players who know how to handle it, the chasers cannot afford to keep dropping points. 

Keep The Faith People and lose the negative waves.

 

Was always going to be their high press against our defence, just frustrating how bad our passing was, gave them even more of the ball and limited our own attacks

Happily take this draw. Move on to Saturday and get 3.

http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11668/10751352/chelsea-and-n8217golo-kante-move-closer-to-title-after-liverpool-draw

3 things I wanted to mention that I learnt from this article based on tonight's game. It shows how valuable an asset Kante is, especially when we gift the opposition majority of possession throughout the match however I also look to the worrying side of that too. Kante made 14 tackles with Lovren and Wijnaldum at a mere 3 however it shows that we paid way too much respect to Liverpool and that when we have these big away games we don't necessarily know how to impose ourselves. Same tactic, soak up pressure and counter. We need to control the game more. It was the same against Spurs throughout the whole game at WHL and for large majority of the game at the Bridge and also for large moments against City. Conte needs to address this so we also have a plan B.

Secondly, it is strange how it mentions that "Matic impressed again in midfield" yet this whole forum is in meltdown claiming he was awful and needs to be replaced. FWIW, I have looked at several player ratings and some acknowledge that his passing was sometimes poor but other than that he marshalled the defence well. If these people were to look at his forum, they would defo judge our fans as the harshest, cynical critics around. I certainly thought the overreaction was as bit OTT. He frustrated me but I was quite shocked at the meltdown after.

Third thing is Hazard. When people criticize him after nights like this, this is where I defend him. When Kante has to make that much tackles, it pretty much underlines our approach. Sit back, counter. If we had possession like Liverpool did, we probably would have seen more of Hazard but in a game where we struggled to string much passes together, got to defend him a little because it will be hard for a lot of players like it was for Willian and Costa as well.

Diego's worst performance of the season. Was bound to happen sometime, the guy's been nothing but world class every time he has taken the field.

Midfield and Defense were great. Dont understand the negative comments regarding matic.

Kante was awesome, as was Cesc. Defence in general was brilliant.

Would gladly take a point. 

 

Costa wasn't bad he was quiet.

That will happen all the time when you sit back against a team that presses - like Liverpool did.

But when he got the ball in and around the box he looked dangerous, his touch was there and he was holding defenders off like he has done all year.

Maybe people are letting that missed pen distort the view on his game.

He's had better more effective games, but the way we set up was detrimental to his performance.

??? costa was great last night, zero service from the midfield but everytime he got the ball he always manage to turn it into a good attacking chance, also put in a huge contribution defensively, tracking back from the top and caught jordan gerrard henderson off guard a couple of times

Hazard wasn't bad, he's the only spark we have going forward in that line up, horrendous decision to take him off.. cesc should have started ahead of matic long time ago from day one and please stop make it sound as if our defence will be as fragile as tofu if he plays'..  His ability to instill some calmness in midfeild as well as launching dangerous ball forward is a form of defence in itself..

 

Good result, they needed 3 from this. Just read the report on bbc sport and the writer is actually bigging improved liverpool and top 6 record klopp up !!

unbelievable, they think they are title candidates they needed 3 points could not get them and have not won at home for 4 games

Well, we are 9 points clear!!  This Time last year we were no where, and people still pining over Jose ( not the Jose of 2004 I might add) so things are looking good, I for one will bowl into work this morning with a bit of a swagger, typical Chelsea style, remember we could be geeky gooners?

Honeslty, I think people expect us to just steam roll every team we play, like liverpool don't have a say in the matter. This was almost a full strength Liverpool side who love to turn up for the big games.. People need to stop looking at teams on there performance against so called smaller teams in the league, the game plan, the attitude, the desire is on another level when they play us. And liverpool are a decent outfit. 

 

Would have been great if costa had converted the penalty but the results around us made it easier to stomach. 

 

From a performance point of view, Kante was on another level, absolutely ridiculous shift

Matic was a bit poor, has been much better this season

Hazard likewise, couldn't really get in to his stride and hasn't for a month or so, if he's carrying somthing lets give him a rest. 

I think we have to find a way to get Fabregas in the team, the guy is another level and we have no one else close to him in terms of seeing and executing a killer ball. I'd love to see, Costa push Hazard or pedro up top as a support striker and play Fabregas in a midfield 3 

Might have been discussed earlier, but luiz should take our penalties. He can really bust the net with his shots. I recall when lampard prevented drogs from taking a penalty to ensure that we won the game, even though drogs was needed the goal for his golden boot

We dropped points and still extended our lead at the top as no one can follow. We could have perhaps end all doubts but Costa isn't a penalty taker and he proved it last night. He had a bad game, he can only repay us with a brace on saturday 

I just watched some of the key points back, but how did Klopp get away with literally screaming in the face of the 4th official after Costa missed the penalty.

 

I hate to sound like a United fan but if that was someone like Jose or even dare I say Wenger, they'd have been sent to the stand IMO.

A satisfactory result turned into a very good one by Arsenal (LOL) and Tottenham's subsequent underperformance. 

David Luiz's free kick was one of the cheekiest ever. 

Shame we couldn't maintain the lead but this Liverpool outfit was close to full strength and played significantly better than they have over the past few weeks. 

At this point I would be amazed if anyone could catch us - the teams below us are nowhere near as consistent as we are.

Bring on Arsenal at Stamford Bridge, especially with the way they played against Watford. They rarely play particularly well at Stamford Bridge and if they play like that against us they'll probably get thrashed. 

9 hours ago, jamie#8 said:

We hardly created a chance. We couldn't string 3 passes together.

Have to agree with that. Up until Fabregas came on that was one of the most frustrating and uncomfortable performances I have seen from us in a long time. Probably because it was against the dippers and I Hate losing to that lot so was squirming in mys seat for most of the game. Can't believe how we failed to do the basics and gave the ball away all night long. Perhaps the Arsenal game will not be the right time to make the switch but we HAVE to get Fabregas back in to the starting 11 soon. He makes us tick and doesn't just waste the ball.

After we made the subs thought we were unlucky not to nick it - gutted Costa missed the penalty. On the other hand, the drunk-driver should have scored at least 1 for them and I feared they would grab a winner right at the death so all in all happy to take the point, especially with Arsenal choking and Spurs unexpectedly dropping points at Sunderland.

Now we have to play a LOT better on Saturday and beat those Gooners.

he got away with that

https://imgur.com/a/DDlpj#bfAsFAj

 

Have t read the whole thread but my view of the match was I was disappointed in our performance. Happy with the point but we seem to consistently give the ball back to the dippers inviting more pressure. Simple retention of the ball would have allowed us to launch more counterattacks from which the dippers looked vulnerable. 

Matic is doing a defensive job but his passing is really letting him down. I'm not talking killer through balls but simple 10/20 yard passes to retain procession. Wish we could have Fab in the team, he just installs calm when on the ball and when he was on seemed to be scaring the sh*t out of Liverpool with those few threaded  passes he played through.

overall good enough result but a poor performance.

Ha ha, woke up in Liverpool this am and local paper in my hotel is celebrating getting a draw against us, says a lot. Yes we were below our best, but out of all the top teams, we have the ability to still compete.

had a feeling costa was going to miss his penalty, it was at the kop end and he was getting a lot of stick.

naturally would have loved the win, but would have taken a point beforehand and the fact arse and sp*ra fcuked up, makes it still feel like a win. just hope we beat arsenal Saturday.

a few players below par last night, but conversely Kante, luiz, Cahill, Dave were immense. Let's stay positive, we have a lot to be positive about 

Luiz should be taking penalties, not Costa!