Jurgen Klopp claimed Liverpool played “football like hell” after they inflicted Chelsea’s first defeat of the Premier League season. It’s important to understand that every single game is very tough and we mustn’t forget last season.
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If it’s not a contender for goal of the season, we’ll eat our hats.
“It’s not natural. It’s not simple”.
“I’m the coach, so I must work more on this aspect”.
“At this level it is important to pay attention to every detail if you want to win”.
In a dominant first-half display, Liverpool took the lead through Dejan Lovren before England midfielder Henderson curled home a superb effort from distance in the 36th minute.
“In the first half – I must be honest – I thought we gave away two goals”, Conte said. “The first goal came after a free-kick which they took very quickly and the second after a throw-in”.
Asked what another impressive performance and victory does for the atmosphere within the dressing room, Henderson responded: “It gives us confidence”.
No team had scored more than Liverpool’s half-century of league goals since the turn of the year and the pace and invention of their forward thinkers had the potential to expose the hosts’ rejigged back line.
The defence continues to be a worry for Chelsea despite £55 million’s worth of reinforcements coming into the position and his lack of trust in his backline against a big opponent meant he waited until the 70th minute to make a change.
Some questioned both his late substitutions and the snub to Batshuayi after the Belgium impressed during the first games of the campaign.
The home side came back strongly in the second half and got a goal back through Diego Costa, but the Reds put in a solid defensive shift in the final exchanges to hand Chelsea their first defeat of the season.
“Two weeks ago everybody was asking what’s wrong with Liverpool in the transfer market – why have they not got five midfielders and eight new left-backs – but now these boys are starting in one of the most hard fixtures in football, and we deserve the result tonight”, he added.
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“I made three changes at the 80′ because I needed fresh players to change the game inertia: other times this worked, this time not. It could have been Batshuayi but on this occasion I chose to change the wingers and move Eden Hazard close to Diego Costa”.
