Antonio Conte spun on his Italian leather shoes to face the Chelsea dugout behind him. In his mother tongue, he unleashed a damning assessment of the first 40 minutes he had seen at Stamford Bridge on Friday night to his team of assistants. Conte looked down the line to Englishman Steve Holland, Chelsea assistant manager, and needed just one word to translate. "Bad," he barked toward Holland.
And he was right. Chelsea had been lacklustre, slower than Liverpool to every ball, ill-disciplined in shape, which gifted the opening goal, Dejan Lovren's early strike, to the visitors. Liverpool's second, however, was simply a treat to the eyes, as Jordan Henderson's goal nine minutes from the interval stunned the home support into silence.
Chelsea did provide a whiff of a comeback in the second-half when Diego Costa, so frequently Conte's savior this season, prodded in a Nemanja Matic cross just after the hour mark. But there would be no last-minute dive into the crowd this time for Chelsea's charismatic manager, who suffered his first loss since agreeing to become Jose Mourinho's permanent successor in the summer. Instead, he watched his side lose ground on league leader Manchester City while their victor joined Chelsea on 10 points, climbing up to fourth in the Premier League table.
"It's not important [that] this is my first defeat," Conte said after the game. "This is Chelsea's defeat. It is important to understand that every single game is very tough and we mustn't forget the last season. When you finish in 10th it means we are to work very hard to improve and not repeat the bad season."
Chelsea was without captain John Terry due to injury, meaning David Luiz made his first start for the Blues since rejoining the club from Paris Saint-Germain on transfer deadline day. The host was worse off without Terry at the heart of defense, organising the troops against the fluidity of Liverpool's attack, made up of Sadio Mané, Philippe Coutinho and Daniel Sturridge. Terry's absence was felt early one when Sturridge was able to shift the ball just outside the penalty box and test Thibaut Courtois, but it was most painfully realized in the 17th minute when a short free-kick caught Chelsea unawares. Lovren, one of four Liverpool players unmarked at the back post, timed his run to perfection and finished a Coutinho cross smartly past Courtois. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was out of his seat, fists gently pumping toward the ground.
That celebration was repeated with added verve 19 minutes later, though, when Henderson picked the ball up 35 yards out. Chelsea center-back Gary Cahill had only half-cleared a Liverpool throw-in, and Henderson's response was emphatic. He killed the ball immediately and struck it first time, watching it whip and dip just under the crossbar, as Courtois desperately scrambled across his goal line. Stamford Bridge was stunned into silence but for the away fans in the far corner of the ground and the German in the visitor's dugout.
The situation was not too uncommon for Conte. Chelsea has found itself requiring second-half comebacks in three of the Italian's four games in the Premier League so far. Chelsea returned from the break with a greater energy, having spent 15 minutes in the company of the irritated Italian. The defense played further up the field, passes were zipped into feet with greater intensity, reflecting Conte's animated tenacity on the touchline.
It took little over 15 minutes of the second-half for Chelsea to break through Liverpool's defense. Matic picked up the ball just inside the opposition half and drove at Liverpool with the powerful strides that lacked in last season's woeful title defense. He slipped the ball wide to Eden Hazard on the wing, and retrieved it once again in the penalty box. Matic carried to the byline and flicked the ball back to Costa for his fifth goal of the season. There was to be no celebration from Conte, who frantically waved his players back, in search of an equalizer.
And it nearly came just three minutes later, as the tension in west London was turned up a notch. A searching ball from Branislav Ivanovic was nodded down by Matic to the feet of Costa. The Spaniard took his touch into the penalty area and struck on the turn, but his effort was straight at Simon Mignolet.
Liverpool's best chance to put the game to bed came through substitute Divock Origi in the 81st minute. Coutinho and James Milner linked up down the left, with the Englishman seeing his cross deflecting off Ivanovic into the path of Origi. The 21-year-old climbed above Luiz and Cesar Azpilicueta, directing his header low, underneath Courtois. But the six-foot-six-inch Belgian fell to the floor and parried to safety.
Conte looked to his bench with just over five minutes to play, making a triple substitution with Cesc Fabregas, Victor Moses and Pedro coming on. But the trio were unable to help complete the comeback, seeing Conte experience his first defeat as manager at Stamford Bridge. The Italian's last loss on home turf came as Juventus boss in January 2013, and he won three successive titles in Turin. There's hope for Chelsea yet.
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