Liverpool maintained their place at the summit of the Premier League after they beat Chelsea 2-1 at Anfield on Sunday.
Mohammed Salah opened the scoring from the penalty box. Nicolas Jackson levelled for Chelsea after the break, but Curtis Jones then responded swiftly to restore his side’s advantage to give Liverpool 10 wins in 11 games since Arne Slot took charge.
Victory takes Liverpool one point ahead of City and four clear of Arsenal, who they face at the Emirates next weekend.
Chelsea are now seven points off the top down in sixth, but there was plenty cause for optimism for the Blues from a performance that stretched Liverpool to their limits.
Liverpool’s only defeat under Slot came to Nottingham Forest following September’s international break.
The Dutchman responded by this time leaving all of his South American internationals — Alexis Mac Allister, Luis Diaz and Darwin Nunez — on the bench after their exertions in recent days across the Atlantic.
The decision to hand Jones just his second league start of the season proved an inspired one as the England international won Liverpool’s penalty and scored the decisive goal.
Chelsea were fortunate still to have 11 men on the field after just six minutes when Tosin Adarabioyo hauled down Diogo Jota.
Chelsea, though, had another escape just before half-time when referee John Brooks intially pointed to the spot once more when Jones went down under a challenge from Robert Sanchez.
VAR intervened, however, as the Spanish goalkeeper got a touch on the ball before making contact with Jones. AFP
