Liverpool faced a tough test at the start of the season with a tricky match at Anfield against last year 3rd place Chelsea followed by a traditionally hard fixture at the Britannia to face a Stoke side which lost very few points at home last season.
Riddled with injuries, without crafty midfielder Coutinho and new signing Lovren, the team rose to the challenge in the face of adversity. With no fewer that 6 new faces in the starting XI it really was a question as to whether Kop Idol Jamie Carragher could bring the team together to overcome a strengthened Chelsea side with new face’s such as Cesc Fabregas and Diego Costa.
The game kicked off with Liverpool playing a 41221 formation with 2 attacking midfielders behind Lavezzi, the 3 move fluidly interchanging positions, taking it in turns to run the channels and so keeping a solid Chelsea defence on it’s toes. Neither team took the initiative within the opening 20 minutes as chances were few and far between, both teams defending well to thwart any threats on their goal. On the half an hour mark new boy Lazar Markovic was pulled down wide on the left wing by fellow Serbian Branislav Ivanovic and was rewarded a free kick. Another new face at Anfield Adam Lallana, signing for £20m from Southampton in July, stepped up and took a quick free kick as he delicately clipped the ball to the edge of the 6 yard box. Kop favourite Jordan Henderson reacted fasted breaking free of his marker to stab the ball home past a helpless Petr Cech in the Anfield Road goal, and duly celebrated by passionately punching the air in front of the scornful Chelsea fans.
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Liverpool’s lead didn’t last long as on the stroke of half time a good peice of movement from Didier Drogba on his Chelsea return pulled Martin Skrtel out of position giving Cesc Fabregas room to drive into. Ramires found his Spanish colleague and the ex-Barcelona and Arsenal man made no mistakes finishing one on one with a superb finish.
After the break neither team had a clear cut chance to win the game and both teams settled for a point, which both sides would have probably taken before the game.
Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea
Henderson (30)
An away match against Stoke is feared around England. The Britannia is known as a harsh barren waste land as club after club stumble against what is traditionally a compact, well organised Stoke team. With Daniel Sturridge back from injury, the new boss opted to go with a 433 formation with Sturridge up top with Sterling and Lavezzi on either wing. His tactical nouse paid off as Raheem Sterling burst past his marker on the edge of the box to rifle home a left footed finish across goal to put Liverpool 1-0 up within 10 minutes.
The game wore on with neither team looking to further the scoring until on the 73rd minute Lazar Markovic broke into the box, a good tackle from Geoff Cameron on put the ball into Lavezzi’s feet at the far post who only had to tap the ball in from 4 yards to make it 2-0. The £23m man wasn’t going to missed and duly side footed the ball home to double Liverpool's advantage. The game looked done and dusted, but the Stoke fans weren’t looking to go down without a fight. 3 minutes after Lavezzi tapped home a freak goal from Marco Arnautovic made the score 2-1. Skrtel went to clear the ball but it deflected off the Austrian’s knee and nestled into the bottom corner past an unknowing Mignolet. Stoke now were piling on the pressure, they could smell blood. A fantastic save from the Belgian international denied Walters late into normal time. Liverpool were defending deeper and deeper inviting Stoke pressure. Liverpool broke in the 90th minute but the ball was overturned, a long ball over the Liverpool defence had Brek Shea see himself one on one and fired home to send the Britannia into hysterics. Liverpool hearts were broken, the players looked down and they knew they had deserved a win. An unlucky deflection and a long ball was all that was enough to rob the merseyside club of 3 points.
Stoke 2-2
Liverpool
Sterling (7), Lavezzi (73)
The Champions League draw hasn’t been unkind to Liverpool as they are back in the competition after a 4 year absence.
Bayern Munchen will pose a tough test for Carragher and his men but
Shakhtar and
Sparta Prague shouldn’t be too difficult to overcome for the reds.
Liverpool have pulled out
West Ham at Anfield in the 3rd round of the Capital One Cup. This could be a potential banana skin as it’s likely that this will be used to rest important players.
