Mauricio Pochettino’s first competitive game in charge of Chelsea concluded in a 1-1 draw with Liverpool thanks to an Axel Disasi goal in his Premier League debut.
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In the 12th minute, Mohamed Salah came close to scoring against his former team, but his right-footed curling shot hit the crossbar instead.
Six minutes later, Liverpool did take the lead thanks to an assist from the Egyptian. His magnificent threaded pass split the Chelsea defense and found Luis Diaz, who slipped the ball past Robert Sanchez to score.
Kepa Arrizabalaga, who has been linked with a move away from Stamford Bridge, was left out of the squad, and Pochettino gave Sanchez his Chelsea debut instead.
After a VAR review, Salah’s goal was disallowed for offside before Chelsea tied the score on minute 37.
Ben Chilwell headed the errant ball back into the area after Liverpool failed to deal with a corner, where fellow defender Disasi finished from close range.
Chelsea believed they had finished their comeback two minutes later, but a VAR review resulted in Chilwell’s goal being disallowed for offside.
The Blues had significant second-half dominance, and they had 65.4% of the ball for the entire 90 minutes, which is the best percentage in a Premier League matchup with Liverpool since records have been kept in 2003/04.
Nicolas Jackson, another Chelsea debutant, and Chilwell were both stopped by Alisson in the second half.
Salah, who has scored in each of Liverpool’s first six games of the season and needed just one more goal to break the record for the most goals scored on the opening weekend, was unable to score and was eventually taken off after 77 minutes.
Darwin Nunez, a Liverpool substitute, nearly scored the game-winning goal in stoppage time, but his deflected shot missed by a hair. Both teams were forced to settle for a point.
