James Milner grimaced like a man who knew what he had done, and what might follow .
possibly he did .
There were three minutes until half-time at Stamford Bridge and Liverpool were in the dominance, 2-0 up and looking set to blast their room back into the Premier League title race.

Sadio Mane had ended his nine-game goal drought and Mohamed Salah had delivered another charming moment to usher in the new year. West London began the day gloomy, but it was swiftly turning bolshevik .
And then, with one careless foul, the wholly thing changed .
A brassy free-kick and a Mateo Kovacic roarer late, Chelsea had a lifeline where there appeared to be none. Milner looked to the heavens, his team-mates precisely looked annoyed .
By half-time, Liverpool ’ randomness contribute was gone, and by full-time, surely, so were their chances of catching Manchester City .
We can credibly write Chelsea off a well, as it happens. This plot, wild, unpredictable and about arsenic intense as it gets, may have shown why these two sides are so far ahead of the other 17 in the league, but the truth of the matter is that it besides showed why neither of them are likely to get near Pep Guardiola ’ s reigning champions .
It finished 2-2, a resultant role to be celebrated only at the Etihad Stadium. City ’ second opening is 10 points to Chelsea and 11 to Liverpool, who boast a game in hand but will now be without both Salah and Mane for the remainder of January. On this evidence, they will struggle to cope .
There were mitigating circumstances – injuries, suspensions, Covid cases and the absence of their coach, Jurgen Klopp, for example – but the Reds will rue their own negligence, for surely. This was another game they could and should have won .
Jordan Henderson Mateo Kovacic Liverpool Chelsea 2021-22 This was their sixth reap of the campaign, and in five of them they have led. Two years ago, they were grim, a team capable of shutting down games with about automatic ease, but since clinching that elusive Premier League title in 2020, that pitiless stripe has deserted them.

And it is that which will cost them this season .
They had looked estimable when Mane profited from a Trevoh Chalobah error to open the grade after good nine minutes. It was the Senegal star topology ’ sulfur beginning goal in more than 800 minutes, and taken with aplomb .
Chelsea had started in alert fashion, but by 26 minutes they were on the ropes, Trent Alexander-Arnold picking out the run of Salah, who skinned Marcos Alonso and clipped the ball past Edouard Mendy at the near post. After drawing a lacuna in his last two league matches, the Egyptian was never going to make it a hat-trick, was he ?
But even when leading, Liverpool never gave the air travel of a side in see. They were open and frantic, their bye completion in the hatchway 45 minutes was their lowest of the season, and as a consequence they left the door ajar for Chelsea .
Milner ’ s mistake and Kovacic ’ s stunner changed everything. It was frenzied, the game driven along by a raucous Stamford Bridge air. article continues below

christian Pulisic levelled and from there it was anyone ’ second game. Liverpool had the better efforts in the second half, Mendy saving well from both Salah and Mane, while Chelsea bossed self-control and probe with patience .
Neither could find the killer blow, though, and in the end the draw was the right result .
specially for Manchester City. Guardiola can start ordering the argent polish and the open-top bus now, surely ?