Spanish international Diego Costa scored his tenth goal of the Premier League season as leaders Chelsea added another win to their undefeated record as they beat Liverpool 2-1 at the Anfield earlier today.
In what has been a disastrous month for Brendan Rodgers side, following their loss against Newcastle United and then Real Madrid in the Champions League, the Reds succumbed to their fifth league loss of the season as the Blues came from behind to grab an important three points.
Midfielder Emre Can, who joined the Merseyside club from Bayer Leverkusen this summer, scored his first goal to put Liverpool ahead in the opening ten minutes of the game, but the Blues did not allow them to be comfortable for far too long.
Taking advantage of Liverpool’s defensive weakness which has characterized their season so far, Gary Cahill leveled for Jose Mourinho’s side just five minutes later in a strike that was confirmed to be spot on by the goal line technology.
A 67th minute goal from Costa, who was in a continuous running battle with Martin Skrtel, took the visitors home and now Chelsea sits with four points clear at the top followed by the second placed Southampton.
The Liverpool manager made seven changes to the side that played the Champions League fixture, featuring a weakened eleven rather than to prioritize their game against the Stamford Bridge club, but despite recalling the likes of Steven Gerrard, Philippe Coutinho and Raheem Sterling to the starting eleven, there wasn’t much damage inflicted on Chelsea.
Liverpool will though complain over not being awarded a late penalty, when a shot from Gerrard seemed to have hit Cahill’s arm.
Star striker Mario Balotelli went goal less once again with the loss coming as a sad reminder of last season’s 2-0 defeat in a similar fixture which marked the end of Liverpool’s hopes of winning the league title.
But Mourinho was delighted after his side inched a step closer to a potential ‘invincible’ campaign and said, “It was a fantastic performance. The players as individuals all had a great day and as team they were in control.”
“One point at Anfield, most teams would accept that as a great result, but this team did not accept that and played for a win. I am really, really pleased”, the Portuguese manager told BT Sport.