N’Golo Kante embodies the model professional, unlike Lukaku

Liverpool's James Milner, right, tackles Chelsea's N'Golo Kante. Picture: AP Photo/Matt Dunham

When the dust settled in west London after another breathless encounter involving Liverpool in the capital, both Reds and Blues will reflect on two points dropped rather than the one they gained.

Chelsea are still second, after a stirring fightback from 2-0 down, but Manchester City were the big winners again at the weekend, opening a 10-point lead over Thomas Tuchel’s side. The Blues have won only two league games out of seven since beating Watford a month ago, and have now drawn five of their past six league games at home, dropping 10 points on the way.

Liverpool are hardly any closer to catching Pep Guardiola’s team. Even if they win their game in hand they will be eight points behind City, and are about to lose their two best forwards for up to a month as Sadio Mane and Mohammed Salah head off to the Africa Cup of Nations.

Both scored to put Liverpool 2-0 ahead within 26 minutes, though Mane was lucky to still be on the pitch after his elbow caught Cesar Azpilicueta in the face in the opening minutes. The Chelsea captain, and plenty of others, thought Anthony Taylor should have shown a red rather than yellow card.

Whatever the merits of that decision, the incident lit the fuse for a match that rarely needs much of a spark to catch fire. The two sets of fans tend not to like each other, and both sang about Steven Gerrard, with Chelsea fans focussing on the former Liverpool captain’s slip that allowed José Mourinho’s side to win at Anfield and kill off the Reds’ title challenge in 2014. The first half was breathless, matching the excitement and action from Liverpool’s last trip to London, the 2-2 draw at Tottenham a fortnight ago.

That began a sequence of dropped points too, with the Reds taking only two from a possible nine as their challenge started to fade, too. While City have won all 17 games in which they have taken the lead, Liverpool have won only 12 out of 17 in which they have been ahead — as happened here again.

From looking dead and buried after the opening quarter, Chelsea fought their way back into it and deserved their point. N’Golo Kante embodied the best of the Blues with another all-action display. Even in the eye of the storm, with play going on around him at breakneck speed, he has the ability to find time and space to make a perfectly-weighted pass, to spot where danger is lurking, and make last-minute interceptions. He set up Chelsea’s equaliser with a delicate pass to send Christian Pulisic in on goal, and moments later was back in his own penalty area to prevent Salah scoring again.

Kante is the embodiment of the model professional, rarely if ever letting his team-mates or manager down with his actions on or off the pitch. Romelu Lukaku, by contrast, was dropped from the squad completely in the wake of his controversial interview on Italian TV, released last week.

Chelsea were angered by Lukaku’s comments that he was not happy at the club, hinting at a return to Inter Milan, and Tuchel felt strongly enough to leave the club’s €100m man out of the squad. The move might have backfired had Chelsea lost or failed to score, but at least Tuchel can say there was no detrimental effect to his disciplinary action.

Then again, a forward with the speed and power of Lukaku would have given Virgil Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate a more difficult time than Kai Havertz and Pulisic, who looked lightweight by comparison. It took a bolt from the blue to get the Blues back in the game, when Mateo Kovacic scored the goal of a lifetime, volleying past stand-in keeper Caoimhín Kelleher from the edge of the ‘D’.

The Cork-born keeper replaced Allison, one of three players missing because of Covid, as was Jurgen Klopp.

In his place, Pep Lijnders took over and the Dutchman’s demeanour was calm by comparison with Klopp and Tuchel. But he still managed a touchline spat with the opposing dugout shortly before Chelsea’s comeback started.

He refused to concede that City cannot be caught, saying: “The title race is not decided until the final day.”

Liverpool’s next game is the first leg of their Carabao Cup semi-final against Arsenal on Thursday, a day after Chelsea host Tottenham at the same stage of the competition.

Tuchel was asked if Lukaku will be eligible to play, should there be an amicable solution to ‘crisis talks’. “We will evaluate the situation and try to understand what he said and why he said it. When the situation is clear, we will take the decision whether he is good to go for Wednesday,” he said.