If only there were two Moises Caicedos. Chelsea and Liverpool have a shared willingness to pay in excess of £100m and if the battle for his services will be conducted off the field, his suitors showed why each wants him by providing a glimpse of the holes in their midfields. Yet, with the expensive Ecuadorian lingering in limbo, the absence of a specialist defensive midfielder on either side added to the entertainment. In a fixture where Claude Makelele and Javier Mascherano used to prowl, snuffing out danger, in a meeting of teams whose previous four clashes had ended goalless, 1-1 felt a deceptive scoreline. Each had a goal disallowed by the most fractional of offsides. It could have been 2-2, perhaps 3-3.
None of which brought the statement result either required to consign last season’s underachievement – grievous in Chelsea’s case, mitigated in Liverpool’s – to the past. But Mauricio Pochettino’s reign at Stamford Bridge began with early evidence it will be better than Graham Potter’s failed project and Frank Lampard’s second coming, and not merely because it could scarcely be any worse. Chelsea lacked spirit last season and mustered a response here. They were too ponderous last year and played with more pace now.
