New Chelsea coach Mauricio Pochettino noticed the crew he rebuilt within the shut season battle again to attract 1-1 at house to Liverpool of their Premier League opener on Sunday as debutant defender Axel Disasi cancelled out Luis Diaz’s strike.
In a gathering of two of final season’s heavyweight flops, Diaz threatened to smash Pochettino’s first aggressive match in command of the Blues when the Colombian stretched out a boot to show in a defence-splitting cross by Mohamed Salah within the 18th minute because the guests attacked with lightening velocity.
Liverpool thought that they had doubled their lead simply over 10 minutes later however Salah was judged to have been offside earlier than he put the ball previous goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, one in every of 4 debutants in Chelsea’s beginning lineup.
The hosts weathered the storm and equalised within the thirty seventh when Liverpool didn’t clear a nook and France worldwide Disasi – signed this month from AS Monaco – swept the ball house from shut vary after a looping Ben Chilwell header.
Two minutes later Chilwell rounded goalkeeper Alison Becker to place ball within the web however VAR dominated he was offside.
Chelsea dominated possession after the break however didn’t get a second purpose. A deflected shot by substitute Darwin Nunez then nearly gained it for Liverpool within the dying moments.
Argentine Pochettino – who coached Chelsea’s London rivals Tottenham Hotspur from 2014 to 2019 and gained Ligue 1 with Paris Saint-Germain in 2022 – promised Chelsea followers “an enjoyable style of football” in his programme notes on Sunday and the Stamford Bridge crowd applauded the crew off the pitch.
That represented a pointy distinction to the gloom that enveloped the Blues final season after they fired managers Thomas Tuchel and Graham Potter after which suffered their worst Premier League end since 1994, ending in twelfth place.
As nicely as Disasi together with his purpose, fellow debutant Nicolas Jackson, a striker signed from Villarreal, stretched Liverpool – though he additionally spurned some possibilities – whereas academy graduate Levi Colwill, additionally on his first aggressive Chelsea begin, recovered from a testing opening interval to thwart Salah.
Liverpool coach Juergen Klopp additionally gave first begins to new midfielders Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga, the topic of hypothesis relating to a switch to Real Madrid, was not even on the bench.