Liverpool continued their excellent start to the Premier League campaign with a 2-1 win over Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday evening.
Manchester City celebrated a last-gasp win against Wolverhampton Wanderers at the Molineux Stadium earlier on Sunday and the onus was on Liverpool to respond with a victory to return to the top of the table.
The Merseyside giants did the same with an admirable performance. Chelsea had the larger share of possession, but the Reds were more effective in the final 3rd, picking up their 7th league win of the season.
Mohamed Salah broke the deadlock for the hosts from the penalty spot. Nicolas Jackson levelled the scores shortly after the break for Chelsea, but Curtis Jones put the Reds ahead within the space of 3 minutes.
Chelsea pushed for the equaliser for the rest of the game, but the Reds managed to hold on to their advantage.
Jones made his 2nd straight start for the Anfield heavyweights and he produced a fantastic display. The club graduate completed 90% passes with 6 recoveries, 6 duels won & 2 successful tackles, as per Fotmob.
Undroppable
The 23-year-old started the campaign on the bench with manager Arne Slot preferring to start Ryan Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister in midfield with Dominik Szoboszlai from the no.10 position.
Against Crystal Palace, Jones was picked to start in the attacking midfield role ahead of Szoboszlai. He kept his place versus Chelsea yesterday as Mac Allister was carrying a minor illness after international duty.
After his stand-out display, Slot is unlikely to drop him from the starting plans in the near future. Szoboszlai was largely ineffective on Sunday and he could make way to facilitate Mac Allister’s return to the line-up.
Slot has exceeded expectations in his maiden managerial season with Liverpool. The Reds are looking genuine challengers for the league title at the moment and can’t get complacent with tough fixtures coming up.
The club face RB Leipzig in the Champions League on the road on Wednesday evening before facing Arsenal away in the top-flight. If they were to beat both, the confidence should only increase within the squad.