The Man in The Shed 

3^rd March 2020 – Timing is everything

Our third meeting of the season against Liverpool and leading up to the game I had feared the worst for our team. The sudden downturn is Liverpool’s form was somewhat of a surprise (with losses to Athletico Madrid and Watford) but would this be a good time or a bad one to play them ? A wounded opponent angry to re-assert itself or a vulnerable one ?

To be honest two of our best performances of the season had been against Liverpool. The European Super cup was lost on penalties and a spirited home performance (along with a VAR disallowed goal) was ultimately not quite good enough.

The team sheets were a positive sign for Chelsea. Whilst we had a slowly growing injury list, we could still put out a reasonable team; Liverpool had half a team of younger or squad players (Salah and Firmino on the bench). Two big calls for Chelsea – Kepa back in goal and young Gilmour in midfield.

With Liverpool having taken the whole of the shed end it was Matthew Harding Upper for me for the evening.

Our fans seemed in good voice; I was hoping that our team would be in a good place too. 

The first five minutes were ominous with three poor defensive errors but we were not punished.

The team settled and took the initiative in the game. Pedro (on his 200^th appearance – wow) squandered two good chances with bad decision-making but the game was mainly played in their half. The travelling Kop were mostly quiet.

Having saved a Willian piledriver minutes earlier it was something of a surprise when another shot from the same man somehow managed to squirm in off their backup keeper. Happy to take that gift.

Within minutes Kepa had justified his return to the side with 3 quick saves in the middle of a penalty area scramble.

The remainder of the half completed with Chelsea still creating (but failing to convert) chances.

Losing Kovacic to injury was a worry. Players were getting injured faster than others were able to recover.

At half time I was generally pleased with our display (other than the first 5 minutes). Sounding like a broken record but having created many chances we’d still only managed to convert one. Gilmour had looked very assured with some key defensive interventions and even Kepa looked solid.

Not surprisingly Liverpool made a better start in the second half. The loss of Willian was another setback – we were running out of players I shouted at nobody in particular.

As we settled back into the game could we convert another chance ?

Well, as Barkley set off on another counter-attack he had a player either side of him and most fans (including me) were expecting him to play a pass so it was with great surprise and delight as he lashed the ball into the net for a brilliant second goal.

I was starting to believe we could win this ! Even as Pedro failed with another one-on-one with the keeper and Salah and Firmino joined the game.

Giroud almost made it three when Adrian pushed hit shot onto the bar. Chelsea were counter-attacking as Liverpool searched for a way back.

But despite having the famous forward three on the pitch Liverpool failed to create any really good chances and the win was ours !

OK so not a full-strength Liverpool but we had beaten a top side.

Young Billy Gilmour had played like a veteran and was clearly our man of the match. What a talent.

The whole team had fought hard. Some of the defensive work by the likes of Pedro was key to stifling the opposition.

We move on. Welcome back Carlo Ancelotti and Everton on Sunday.