Liverpool and Chelsea have faced each other three times this season, including in the League Cup final, and each time it has finished in a draw. The result seemed predictable enough that both BBC pundits Alan Shearer and Micah Richards envisaged the match going the distance, with Liverpool winning on penalties just as they had in February.
Jürgen Klopp made five changes to the team that beat Aston Villa in mid-week, replacing Joël Matip, Kostas Tsimikas, Fabinho, Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota with Ibrahima Konaté, Andy Robertson, Jordan Henderson, Thiago Alcântara and Mohamed Salah. Liverpool set up in their usual 4-3-3 formation.
Thomas Tuchel made just one change to the side that beat Leeds United, replacing Andreas Christensen with Thiago Silva. Chelsea lined up in their usual 3-4-3 shape.
Liverpool started the game on the front foot as they easily worked around Chelsea’s shape. Mason Mount and Christian Pulisic took up relatively narrow positions to block up the centre and pressure the Liverpool centre-backs, particularly Pulisic on Konaté, but this meant they left the full-backs free. As a result Marcos Alonso and Reece James were forced into pushing out to meet Trent Alexander-Arnold and Robertson to ensure they weren’t just left in space, however this meant them leaving the back three alone against Liverpool’s front three. Luis Diaz and Salah took up quite wide positions down the outside of Chelsea’s back three, aiming to stretch them and to isolate Trevoh Chalobah and Antonio Rüdiger respectively. Combined with Chelsea playing quite a high line, Liverpool were repeatedly able to get in behind and cause problems to Chelsea’s backline.
Chelsea weren’t even able to block up the centre well however. Romelu Lukaku would try to block passes into Henderson initially, but this would only really work for passes coming from the centre-backs. Once the ball was moved into midfield or to the full-backs, Lukaku would generally lose interest, meaning Liverpool could easily get the ball to Henderson by just bouncing it into him via a teammate.
Thiago would also do his usual job of dropping in next to Henderson, with Mateo Kovacic unwilling to follow him too far and leave Jorginho alone in front of the defence. In theory Mount tucking inside should have plugged up this space, but playing out to Robertson would get the Englishman to shuffle out to the flank, leaving space inside for Thiago to drop into, or sometimes he would simply drop all the way back in line with the defenders, not needing to bypass any Chelsea players to receive the ball. With his passing ability, Thiago was able to cut straight through Chelsea into the attackers.
Liverpool playing out to the full-backs would usually see Jorginho or Kovacic move out to the flanks to defend, which would in turn leave space in the centre for Sadio Mané to drop into. The Senegalese was consistently dropping off to get on the ball, dragging Thiago Silva upfield, before playing in Diaz and Salah.
Theoretically Chelsea should have been blocking up the centre, but in practice their front three were played around easily, leaving their midfield pair outnumbered.
Although on the back foot, Chelsea had some attacking success of their own. Liverpool aimed to press Chelsea high, pushing their front three up onto Chelsea’s back three and Naby Keïta and Thiago up onto Jorginho and Kovacic. Much like Chelsea’s structure, this set-up would leave the Chelsea wing-backs free though. It was a risky pass out to them, but if they could pick out Alonso or James then Alexander-Arnold and Robertson could be pulled out of the backline, allowing Chelsea go three-on-three or even four-on-three against the remaining Liverpool defenders.
Chelsea created more chances down the right as Robertson was more willing to desert his backline to pressure James, leaving space behind him, whereas Alexander-Arnold was happier to sit back and allow Alonso to have the ball in space – this was obviously risky as it gave the Spaniard time to pick out a pass or cross, but he generally wasted it, while the backline was less stretched with Alexander-Anrold remaining a part of it.
A string of Liverpool injuries part-way through the half shifted the momentum though. Part of it was the stoppages simply upsetting Liverpool’s rhythm, but Tuchel also made some changes to shore things up for Chelsea. They shifted to a 4-2-3-1 pressing shape: Pulisic was moved inside to pick up Henderson, with Lukaku now up on the centre-backs, while Mount was tasked with tracking Robertson and Alonso moved forward onto Alexander-Arnold. This meant Robertson and Alexander-Arnold were given less space than before, while James could now stay back in defence, giving them an extra man to avoid getting stretched as they had in the opening stages.
The downside was that Liverpool’s centre-backs were now given more space, meaning Konaté could push forward on the ball.
After an open first half, the second was much quieter.
Liverpool dropped off into more of a mid-block. Rather than pushing forward onto the outside centre-backs, Jota and Luiz would hold back closer to the Chelsea wing-backs, then push up to pressure the centre-backs once they wanted to engage, curving their runs to block the pass out to the wing-backs.
Both teams’ attacking was broadly similar, revolving around the five man attacking line most top teams today use. With a five-man frontline, the teams would look to stretch the opposition backline, either narrowing them then spreading the ball into space out wide, or by attacking down one side then crossing to the back post. Unsurprisingly given the quality of Alexander-Arnold and James, both teams’ best chances came primarily from the right: Alexander-Arnold found Robertson at the back post several times, while James would also cross towards the back post, where two Chelsea players would usually double up on Alexander-Arnold.
With both teams fatiguing heavily, it was more of a the same in extra-time, with neither side looking likely to break the deadlock.
There was no repeat of the mind games from the League Cup final for the penalty shoot-out, with Tuchel sticking with Edouard Mendy in goal this time instead of turning to Kepa Arrizabalaga. This decision paid off when Mendy saved Mané’s penalty, having presumably had experience practising them together with the Senegalese national team, however in the end it wasn’t enough, as Alisson Becker saved Mount’s penalty before Tsimikas tucked his away to claim the cup for the Reds.
With this victory, Klopp has completed the set, winning every available trophy for Liverpool except for the Europea League, which would require Liverpool dropping out of the more prestigious Champions League to get another shot at.
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