LONDON (AP) — Chelsea began life after Graham Potter with another goalless draw against Liverpool on Tuesday, failing to score at home for the fifth time in 2023.
Interim manager Bruno Saltor, thrust into the job after Potter was fired on Sunday, proved no more able to get Chelsea clicking up front than the man he replaced, with the depths of the team’s scoring problems laid bare against a Liverpool side that also offered little.
It was a familiar story for Chelsea's exasperated home fans. Once again they witnessed their team work hard and create chances but fail to emerge with three points or reason to be optimistic.
Chelsea stayed in 11th place, 11 points off the Champions League spots. Winning the competition looks to be the only realistic route back into it, with a quarterfinal against Real Madrid coming up.
Liverpool is four points better off in eighth place and will need a strong finish to get into the top four, and for teams above them to splutter.
Under Bruno, Chelsea's players started well and determined to punish the smallest slip — and they did not have long to wait.
After five minutes, the ball was given away carelessly to Kai Havertz in Liverpool’s half and Reece James released Joao Felix, who ran at the heart of the defense. Some deft, delicate footwork took him inside Joel Matip as he entered the area, but the defender recovered to deflect the incoming shot to safety.
Chelsea had 27 shots on goal in a 2-0 loss to Aston Villa and in the first 20 minutes against Liverpool, the attacks came in waves.
Ibrahima Konate was forced into a last-ditch slide to scoop Mateo Kovacic’s effort off the line after the midfielder rounded Alisson, then Havertz was denied at point-blank range by the Liverpool goalkeeper when he arrived to meet Ben Chilwell’s cross.
James thought he had given his side the lead after 25 minutes, crashing the ball home through a crowd, only for VAR to rule offside against Enzo Fernandez.
On a rare positive note, N’Golo Kante — on his first start since August — put in an imperious first-half display that rattled Liverpool, who came alive at last in the final moments before halftime.
Joe Gomez tested goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga with a whipped shot toward the corner which drew an acrobatic save, before Wesley Fofana made a decisive close-range block from Fabinho to deflect the ball wide.
Chelsea had struggled to convert chances under Potter and a frustrated Stamford Bridge witnessed the same story here.
In the second half, Havertz thought he finally had his goal when he burst through and found the net but VAR again intervened, adjudging the ball to have rebounded in off his arm from Alisson’s save.
“I think, at the moment especially after the loss at the weekend, we missed a lot of confidence and (Potter's departure) doesn’t make it easier,” Havertz said. "But we are all professionals and we have to score. We have to keep on pushing.”
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp made a slew of changes after Saturday's 4-1 loss to Manchester City, with Mohamed Salah, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andrew Robertson on the bench. Virgil van Dijk was out with an illness.
“Two teams on a low confidence level but they put in a good fight,” Klopp said. "Super attitude and super mentality and that’s what I saw. They had chances, we had chances.
"We had to fight until the end, they had to fight until the end. It was a super intense game but not a spectacular game.”
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