Chiesa denied Sunderland's win at Anfield

This sentence will sound strange an awkward, but it‘s true: Sunderland left Anfield tonight disappointed that they failed to defeat Liverpool! The Black Cats, the revelations of this season‘s Premier League came from the Championship and played excellent so far, racking up six victories so far, and they nearly did it tonight against mighty Liverpool. They scored first and then had a sitter in the 93rd minute, but the current England champion somehow got the help from Lady Luck and thanks to Federico Chiesa avoided defeat: 1-1.

The Reds were again bad and flat and the Black Cats deserved all three points. Arne Slot again left Salah on the bench but without him or with him (he came in the second half), nothing was working. Liverpool have failed to scored in the first half of four successive Premier League. They had only three shots towards the opponents deep into the second half before they scored due to Sunderland‘s own goal. Virgil Van Dijk was not defending properly and allowed Moroccan gem Chemsdine Talbi to shot him in the backside and score. And it was a reserve man Chiesa who had to ran almost 90 meters in full sprint in order to prevent Sunderland‘s injury time winner…

We saw a pretty boring first half with a few chances, which came near the end of the half. Everything was quiet for half and hour and then Sunderland recorded the first chance of the game. Hume decided to try from 25 meters and Alisson was forced to save it. Szoboszlai did the same on the other end minutes later but Roefs stopped the shot without much effort. In the next attack we saw the best chance in the first half. Mac Allister, even with his hight was able to head the ball towards the goal, but hit the post.

Slot decided to introduce Salah at halftime instead of Gakpo and Wirtz moved to the left while Szoboszlai moved into the middle but that didn‘t worked either. In fact, the first big chance was Sunderland‘s. A near post corner was whipped towards Alderete who won the first contact and flicked an effort that smacked the outside of the post. And then – a shock. Moroccan Chemsdine Talbi found himself in position to shoot from the edge of the penalty area which he did. The ball hit Van Dijk in the backside and changed direction, tricking Alisson and giving Black Cats the lead. What the lady Luck gave to Sunderland it also took away in the 81st minute when Jones gave the ball to Wirtz, who took a shot but the ball hit Mukiele for an own goal. The referee gave the home team seven minutes of injury time, but Sunderland nearly used it when Isidor broke all alone in front of Alisson. The Brazilian has capitulated but Chiesa ran all the way from his own half to make a slide tackle and saved Liverpool.

PREMIER LEAGUE - MATCHDAY 14

Tuesday

Bournemouth - Everton 0-1 (0-0)

/Grealish 78/

Fulham - Manchester City 4-5 (1-3)

/Emile Smith Rowe 45+2, Alex Iwobi 57, Chukwueze 72, 78 - Haaland 17, Reijnders 37, Foden 44, 48, Berge 54 (og)/

Newcastle Tottenham 2-2 (0-0)

/Guimaraes 71, Gordon 86(p) - Romero 78, 90+5/

Wednesday

Arsenal - Brentford 2-0 (1-0)

/Merino 11, Saka 90+1/

Brighton - Aston Villa 3-4 (2-2)

/Van Hecke 9, 83, Torres 29 og - Watkins 37, 45+7, Onana 60, Malen 78/

Burnley - Crystal Palace 0-1 (0-1)

/Munoz 44/

Wolverhampton - Nottingham Forest 0-1 (0-0)

/Jesus 73/

Leeds - Chelsea 3-1 (2-0)

/Bijol 6, Tanaka 43, Calvert-Lewin 72 - Neto 50/

Liverpool - Sunderland 1-1 (0-0)

/Mukiele 81(og) - Talbi 67/

Thursday

23.00: (1.50) Manchester United (4.30) West Ham (6.50)

***odds are subject to change***