Chelsea’s players were being bypassed by the match, but they managed to plug some of the holes in their defence in the second half and in the 61st minute, Costa gave them a lifeline.
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Speaking after the game, Conte said: ‘I don’t know if they are still affected by last season but, I repeat, when you finish the season in 10th place, something odd is there.
The only blot on Liverpool’s league record so far was their surprise 2-0 defeat at promoted Burnley, which was followed by a 1-1 draw at Tottenham Hotspur.
“I repeat, when you finish the season in 10th place, something odd is there”.
“We played football like hell”, Klopp told Sky Sports.
The Reds ran Chelsea ragged in a blistering first half and led thanks to goals from Dejan Lovren and Jordan Henderson.
Conte made a triple change with eight minutes remaining as Victor Moses, Cesc Fabregas and Pedro were all introduced but, while Chelsea showed much more attacking intent than they had in the first 45 minutes, they could not find an equaliser as they slipped to their first loss of the season.
“The season is not over, we have to play football – we know we can play football and we are convinced about our quality”.
It was satisfying of course, especially the first half, it was brilliant.
Anyone who’s ever played against Chelsea in all times knows that it is really hard to play against them. “We defended excellently, and deserved the three points”.
“In the first half we gave away two goals”, admitted Blues manager Antonio Conte.
We created space, we found them, we played in them, but we didn’t score the goals in this moment but we were quick in mind. I don’t want to repeat last season.
Chelsea manager Antonio Conte handed a second debut to Brazilian centre-back David Luiz, who returned to the club on transfer deadline day after two seasons at Paris Saint-Germain.
Conte, however, has warned his players that they repeat last season’s disastrous campaign – which saw them finish outside the Champions League places – unless they buck their ideas up.
“I don’t want that”.
“We must feel the danger and today, we didn’t”, said Conte.
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“For this reason we must pay attention in every single moment of the game, in every minute”. Now it’s not enough because it’s not the first time this happened. Before half-time there were times when Chelsea were a bit better in the game but only because we stopped playing football.
