10-man Chelsea held on for 45 minutes inside a packed Anfield as they ground out a point in the 1-1 draw against Liverpool on Saturday.
Chelsea took the lead in the 22nd minute, Kai Havertz with his first goal of the season.
The German looped a fine header to the far side of the post beating Liverpool’s goalkeeper, Alisson Becker.
Chelsea missed several chances, Romelu Lukaku, goal scorer Havertz and Mason Mount all found wanting where more accuracy, precision or better judgement would have sufficed.
As the first half wore on both teams sized each other and when it just seemed like the visitors would finish the half with their noses in front, disaster struck.
Young English defender Reece James was adjudged to have intentionally handled the ball, preventing a goal. The Chelsea man in a last ditch effort to deny Liverpool after a goal mouth scramble, hit the ball off his thigh.
Despite first ruling against a penalty, Referee Anthony Taylor consulted VAR and the benefit of a replay prompted a reversal. He awarded a penalty and a straight red to James for delibrate ball handling to deny an obvious goal.
After the commotion by the visiting players was subdued, Liverpool’s Egyptian wide attacker Mohamed Salah stepped forward to take the spot kick.
Salah picked his spot, sending the Chelsea Senegalese goalkeeper, Edouard Mendy the wrong way.
In the fifth minute of additional time, Liverpool were level and pushed for an equalizer.
The half ended 1-1 and despite the numerical advantage in the second half, Jurgen Klopp’s men could not break Chelsea who put on display some resolute defending to keep the scores level.
At the final whistle, both teams settled for a point apiece, finishing the third round of PL matches with seven points each.
