(Football news) Kai Havertz’s early goal was ruled out by VAR as Chelsea and Liverpool played out a goalless draw at Anfield. Havertz thought he had scored a tapped in a rebound after Thiago Silva’s shot hit the post, but he was deemed to have been offside by a VAR review. It was Jurgen Klopp’s 1,000th game in charge, Liverpool seemed confident as they looked to avoid three league defeats in a row. The only chance created in the first half was with new signing Cody Gakpo who missed the best chance in the first half.
The visitors introduced big-money signing Mykhailo Mudryk in the second half and the Ukrainian looked the most lively on the pitch. The Blues earned a point that leaves them 10th, level on points with Liverpool in eighth. Both sides are nine points off the top four with Chelsea having played 20 games while Liverpool have played 19 games. Liverpool found very few opportunities for Gakpo and Darwin Nunez, but neither side were able to score. Liverpool have failed to win any of their last three Premier League games, as for the first time they have failed to score in consecutive games in all the competition since March 2021 against Fulham and Chelsea.
“I thought the performance was good,” Chelsea boss Graham Potter told BT Sport. “I am happy with the team, the energy, what we tried to do.At Anfield, it is always tough. It is a clean sheet and a point, we move forward. Overall, a positive day, apart from the fact we wanted three points.”
“You know this is going to be a tough place to come. Overall, we controlled a lot of it … We could have taken our chances,” Chelsea midfielder Mason Mount said after the match. “It has been tough lately, we want to win games. I feel like it is getting better and we are working hard today. We’ll definitely take this today. The final passes weren’t there, if it was maybe we score a few first half, but as I said, this is a tough place to come. They press you and force mistakes, like the second half and I think we came through that.”
Erling Haaland helped close the gap at the top with a hat trick as Manchester City claimed a comfortable 3-0 win over Wolves. The forward was quick to break the deadlock just before half-time, when he scored from a cross from Kevin De Bruyne to head the ball in. He then went on to step up to double the lead with a penalty in the 50th minute after Ilkay Gundogan was tripped by Ruben Neves. Haaland made it three as he slotted home a pass from Riyad Mahrez into the left corner of the goal past Jose Sa. The Norway international scored 25 goals this season which is already two more than Son Heung-Min and Mohamed Salah scored as the Premier League joint top scorers last season.
Haaland broke Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record of being the fastest player to four Premier League hat-tricks as the Norwegian’s four hat tricks came in 19 games while it took Van Nistelrooy 65 games. Haaland was enduring a mini goal drought but he certainly silenced all the critics. His 25 league goals in 19 matches would have been enough to win the Premier League Golden Boot in each of the previous four seasons. There is a high possibility that Dixie Dean’s record of 60 goals scored in a single league season, set in 1928 can be broken if he is going at this pace..
“He [Haaland] has to get the balls delivered, he has fantastic players around him,” City boss Pep Guardiola said. “The ball from Kevin is fantastic. “He [Haaland] lives 24 hours for his job, passion, love. He’s not stressed much. He is stable. He feels defeated. His numbers are incredible. The way we played today was quite similar to the first-half when we were losing 2-0 to Spurs [on Thursday]. Our game, football, was really good. Today we improved.”
City defender John Stones praised Haaland and his team’s depth, saying to Sky Sports after the match: “That’s his quality. I’m so pleased for him again. He just keeps coming up with the goals. We have had a lot of good goals from different players coming off the bench, starting the games. Riyad [Mahrez] the other night. I don’t want to just put it all on him. We all need to chip and we are doing but when he score three in a game it’s difficult!”
“We made mistakes, but the first half worried me more than the second half,” coach Julen Lopetegui said. “It’s always possible to improve the squad while the [transfer] window is open, but it’s important to improve the players who are already here.”
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