LIVERPOOL, England -- Mauricio Pochettino might have been forgiven for displaying a rueful smile when Darwin Núñez hit the woodwork for the fourth time throughout Liverpool's 4-1 win towards Chelsea at Anfield. In spite of everything, that form of irritating inadequacy is normally a trait of his underperforming Chelsea gamers.
Pochettino nonetheless had loads of excuses to shake his head at his workforce, whether or not it was the defensive errors of Thiago Silva, Ben Chilwell, or Benoit Badiashile, the wayward ending of Mykhailo Mudryk, or Christopher Nkunku's incapacity to remain onside. Chelsea even had good cause to query the competence of referee Paul Tierney and his VAR officers following the failure to award penalties after fouls by Virgil van Dijk on Conor Gallagher and Nkunku.
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However though Núñez grew to become the primary participant since information started to hit the submit or crossbar 4 occasions in a Premier League recreation -- the Uruguay ahead hit the submit with a first-half penalty -- Chelsea have been nonetheless blown away by a rampant Liverpool aspect that maintained a five-point lead over champions Manchester Metropolis on the prime of the desk.
That is typically the distinction between groups on the prime and those that are miles off the tempo. The highest groups overcome setbacks and discover a strategy to win, as Liverpool did emphatically, however groups like Chelsea, who're 20 factors behind Liverpool in tenth place, crumble as quickly as issues begin to go towards them. These two sides are because of meet once more on Feb. 25 within the Carabao Cup ultimate at Wembley, however Chelsea offered little proof that they'll deny Liverpool supervisor Jurgen Klopp the primary trophy in a attainable quadruple subsequent month earlier than he steps down from his function on the finish of the season.
Chelsea's downside, and subsequently Pochettino's, is that they've too many younger, inexperienced, and naïve gamers within the workforce for them to harbour any actual hope of success within the quick and medium time period. Liverpool have a type of in Núñez, the 24-year-old membership document £85 million signing from Benfica, however Klopp has the benefit of with the ability to encompass him with gamers who've been there and accomplished it. If Núñez is misfiring, there are many others all through the workforce who can step up and minimise the draw back of the striker lacking so many probabilities.
Robbie Fowler, Liverpool's all-time main Premier League scorer with 163 targets, summed up the Núñez enigma through the recreation in his function as a TNT Sports activities pundit.
"There comes a point when you can't be classed as a raw player," Fowler stated. "I think Núñez will score goals and will be a handful, but I think there comes a point where he will need to be more clinical."
Whereas Klopp can depend on Diogo Jota and Luis Díaz to attain the targets within the absence of the injured Mohamed Salah -- each scored on this recreation -- Liverpool can stand up to Núñez's shortcomings.
However Pochettino has no such luxurious. At 39, Silva possesses large expertise, however the former Paris Saint-Germain defender not has the legs to do the job he must do on the coronary heart of Chelsea's defence. As for Raheem Sterling, the 29-year-old has a glittering previous, however he lacks the management abilities anticipated of a participant with such expertise.
Past these two, nevertheless, Pochettino merely has gamers who're nonetheless making an attempt to dwell as much as their potential, together with the 26-year-old Nkunku. The membership has invested nearly £1 billion in new gamers for the reason that Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital takeover in Might 2022, however Pochettino -- Chelsea's fourth everlasting supervisor in that interval - solely sees gamers in want of clever previous heads round them. When Klopp added the likes of Cody Gakpo, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Alexis Mac Allister to his squad through the previous 12 months, they have been instantly surrounded by trophy-winning data and expertise and all have thrived at Anfield.
At Chelsea, so many promising younger gamers have seen their careers stall as a result of they have not benefited from the expertise round them. There may be clearly an thrilling participant in Mudryk, however will we ever see it at Chelsea? The identical query applies to Enzo Fernández and Moisés Caicedo. Sadly, with the three gamers costing over £300m between them, their struggles are intensified by their inflated switch charges. Pochettino did little to cover his frustration after the sport.
"It's so clear they were much better than us," he stated. "We lost every single duel. Every time we recovered the ball after one or two touches we lost it.
"We weren't ok. We have to study in this sort of recreation, towards a workforce that's prime and all the time difficult for trophies. We all know we have to push ourselves. We should be extra assured in ourselves."
Whereas Chelsea proceed to float, Liverpool march on and a win at Arsenal on Sunday will whittle the title race right down to a two-way battle with Metropolis.
"The story of the sport is the story of the sport, nevertheless it might have been totally different if we did not begin as we did," Klopp said after his 200th Premier League win as Liverpool manager. "I am tremendous pleased with the efficiency.
"But the next game is coming in four days, which I didn't think was possible, but the next one is massive. Arsenal.
"Let's get well and go once more."
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