Chelsea beats disappointing Liverpool as Hojbjerg calls for VAR consistency

Chelsea continued their unbeaten run under manager Thomas Tuchel with a 1-0 win over Liverpool at the Anfield Stadium on Thursday e evening.

The Blues are on a ten-match unbeaten run with nine of those games coming under Thomas Tuchel. However, Liverpool has only won one of their last five Premier League matches, the weekend’s 2-0 win at Sheffield United.

The visitors dominated from the start with Timo Werner threatening the Liverpool defense, the German striker last scored in a 2-0 win at Newcastle on February 15.

He however found the back of the net in the 24th minute but his strike was ruled out for offside by VAR.

Sadio Mane should have given Liverpool the lead moments later but the Senegalese forward failed to score with the goal at his mercy.

Mason Mount later got the game’s only goal three minutes before halftime with a spectacular effort and Chelsea dominated the second half but failed to find the second goal.

The win puts Chelsea within three points of third-placed Leicester City with 47 points while Liverpool slipped to 7th position, seven points away from top four places.

Meanwhile, in other matches, there was controversy at the Craven Cottage as the VAR denied the hosts a goal that could have leveled the score for Fulham.

Tottenham took the lead in the 19th minute through Tosin Adarabioyo’s own goal. Josh Maja gave Fulham the equalizer in the 63rd minute but VAR adjudged that the ball had touched Mario Lemina’s hand.

However, Spurs midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has clamored for consistency in VAR reviews for handball offense.

“For the players and maybe the referees it is a very difficult one because some are high intensity and not on purpose but they get given. As players, I think what we wish is some kind of consistency in the reviews with the handball situations but I haven’t seen it so I can’t say if it was on or not.” Hojbjerg said.

Written by: Daniel Ademiju Idowu