Chelsea 1-0 Liverpool: 5 Talking Points

#2 Staying tight to Salah might be the only way to stop him

Chelsea kept Salah at an arm's length

Chelsea defended narrowly and were happy to sit back and soak up the pressure for the greater part of the game. What they managed to do through sitting back was affording Salah little space to run into.

With the midfield underperforming, Salah was starved of quality service and even when he got on the ball, he couldn't come up with anything special as the Chelsea defenders stuck to him closely and did not let him get up to his usual tricks.

Salah has been ineffective on very few occasions this season and those have happened when a defender has been hot on his heels and giving him very little room to work with (remember Ashley Young and the pocket joke?).

However, that may not be as positive a piece of information as far as Real Madrid are concerned because we all know who plays at left back for Zizou's men. Marcelo loves to attack and that could very well mean that Salah will be given more time and space on the ball at Kiev.

But if their centre-backs can step up to the task like Cahill, Rudiger and Azpilicueta did today, they could still stop the Egyptian King.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Raunak J