By Richard Buxton, Special to Sportsnet
LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND – The sins of Jose Mourinho continue to haunt Chelsea this season.
Though Antonio Conte was able to stretch his side’s current unbeaten run to four games with a 1-1 draw with Liverpool on Saturday, their ailing Premier League title defence took another unwanted detour, once again thanks to the failings of the Italian’s predecessor.
Mourinho’s ruthlessness in cutting adrift some of English football’s brightest prospects almost came home to roost again, with Mohamed Salah threatening to condemn his former club before Liverpool were ultimately forced to settle for a point.
It is not the first time that the Blues will be plagued by mercurial figures who once wore their colours. Little under two months ago, Kevin De Bruyne dealt a hammer blow as Manchester City emerged victorious at the home of the reigning champions.
Only more dodgy defending from their hosts allowed them to emerge from Anfield with a point from a game where they had, until Willian’s 85th minute equalizer, appeared destined to end with nothing to show for their endeavour at both ends of the pitch.
Gruelling midweek Champions League excursions had taken their toll on both these sides – Chelsea on the back of a gruelling five-and-a-half hour flight home from Qarabag, Liverpool with the psychological torment of throwing away a three-goal lead at Sevilla.
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Eden Hazard, however, showed little signs of the fatigue to which Conte had complained his side endured en route from Azerbaijan. Throughout the first half, the Belgian winger led the Reds’ defence a merry dance as he regularly fashioned a number of chances.
“The start of this season was full of trouble with Eden because he had an injury with the national team and we started the season without him,” Conte said.
“The problem when you have this type of injury and you need surgery, it’s very important to have the best time for your recovery. Now, Eden is in really good form and I think he likes to play as a striker. There is a good link with Alvaro [Morata].
“For me also it’s a great opportunity in this season to have the possibility to play with two different systems. For Qarabag we played with a 3-4-2-1, today we started playing with a 3-5-2. It’s very important that we don’t lose our identity in both case.”
Salah had scored just two goals in 19 appearances during a largely forgettable spell at Chelsea, something Hazard himself openly speculated may have been attributable to the whimsy of his former manager, now enjoying a charmed life at Manchester United.
With his 15th goal in all competitions, the Egypt international is already making up for lost time on a run of form which is already proving more clinical than that of Robbie Fowler, the benchmark against which Liverpool’s list of goal-getters are invariably measured.
Were it not for the resolute defending of Cesar Azpilicueta, Salah may have extended both Liverpool’s lead as well as his own atop the Premier League’s scoring charts – a status he could conceivably retain for the remainder of this season at the current rate of growth.
But Anfield’s season continues to be defined by a punchline of defensive indiscipline that inevitably begins with poor decision-making – Jordan Henderson had the distinction this time around – and ends with Simon Mignolet collecting the ball from his net.
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Jurgen Klopp’s loyalty to his side’s serially under-performing players risks being the petard by which he is ultimately hoisted. A perseverance with Mignolet has continually undermined the German coach’s attempts to restore Liverpool to its once-glorious past.
It did so again as he was left back-pedalling in a desperate attempt to prevent Willian’s cross-cum-shot from handing the Londoners the most unlikely of lifelines as Klopp was left ruing only the second league goal his side had conceded on home soil in seven games.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, previously the object of Chelsea’s affection last summer before Liverpool intervened, highlighted just why Conte was right not to gamble on the former Arsenal man as his move north of the capital continues to prove largely forgettable. Klopp’s assertion that there is little differences between the England midfielder and Sadio Mane, forced to give up his place in the starting line-up, borrowed itself to poetic license.
Alberto Moreno, similarly, continues to escape recrimination with a “100 per cent” pledge of trust made by the Liverpool manager on the eve of this encounter, while Henderson showed again why he lacks the diligence required to protect his side’s flaky defence. Developments of Naby Keita’s final season with RB Leipzig have left the writing firmly on the wall for Henderson. In spite of the Guinea international amassing five bookings and three red cards in his first 10 games for club and country, flawlessly marshalling the Bundesliga outfit’s backline shows why the current Liverpool captain remains on borrowed time.
“I’m really proud of the attitude but I have to say that both teams were, attitude-wise, really on a high level,” Klopp said.
“I think in weeks like this it could be different, not for us and not for, unfortunately, Chelsea tonight. So both teams had a big, big investment in this game, so everything was good… until Willian crossed the ball.
“Most parts of the game are still good, but it doesn’t feel that well, that’s how it is.
“The world is a strange and crazy place at the moment, there are so many much more important things that happened, crazy things are happening, so I can easily live with a point against Chelsea.”
Richard Buxton is a UK-based writer and special correspondent for Sportsnet. He filed this report from Liverpool’s Anfield stadium.
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