The only winners on Sunday were Manchester City, and Romelu Lukaku certainly lost out.
What a pulsating, entertaining encounter for Lukaku to miss — not out of his own choosing — as Chelsea recovered to draw 2-2 with Liverpool without the temporarily exiled striker.
It left City 10 points clear from Chelsea at the top of the English Premier League with Liverpool a further point back.
The sky-blue ribbons look likely to remain on the trophy for another year as the challenge from the chasing pack fades.
“It is a big gap,” Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk said. “They have the title, maybe, to lose but anything can happen.”
That is even before Liverpool is hit the hardest by players heading to the African Cup of Nations. Before leaving for what could be more than a month away, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah did contribute Liverpool’s goals.
Liverpool seemed to be coasting, but were stung twice at the end of the first half, with Mateo Kovacic’s volley and Christian Pulisic’s strike pulling Chelsea level.
It was an engrossing and wild game that was only tempered after the break by the goalkeeping of Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy denying Salah, and Liverpool’s Caoimhin Kelleher’s reflexes thwarting Pulisic’s pursuit of a winner.
“For the public it must have been an unbelievable game,” Liverpool assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders said.
“It was a brilliant match,” Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel said. “Everybody not in the stadium missed something.”
None more so than Chelsea record-signing Lukaku who was dropped by Tuchel for an outburst questioning his limited role in the team.
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