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A month of relative progress largely undone in 45 woeful minutes. Even midway through his first season at Chelsea, that is becoming an altogether too familiar tale for Mauricio Pochettino. 

It would of course be unreasonable to demand that Chelsea so quickly reach the stratospheric standards Liverpool reached at Anfield in a 4-1 victory that restored their five-point cushion at the top of the Premier League. Being competitive against the best of the best is not all that much to ask from a group of players assembled at such great expense. Too many results like this and questions will be asked of the manager.

Those might just be unreasonable. The underlying numbers bolster the pro-Pochettino case. They are not worth discounting, even after this beatdown the Blues have a top-six non-penalty expected goal (npxG) difference. If Nicolas Jackson, Armando Broja and Enzo Fernandez were converting the chances that have come their way over the last six months, perhaps this side might be as high in the actual table as they are the xG rankings.

Watch enough performances as passive as this, as chaotically organized in transition and devoid of any interplay in the final third, and it is hard not to conclude that the numbers are missing something. Chelsea were ripped apart by Liverpool in the same way that so many other midtable sides have been. This had the air of what it was, the Premier League's leading side brutalizing one lurched at its midpoint.

Across the field, Chelsea's expensively assembled squad could barely lay a glove on the opposition. Moises Caicedo continues to underwhelm, tonight he was utterly overwhelmed by a central triumvirate whose combined cost scarcely eclipses one of the Blues midfielders. A billion plus in expenditure and only one attacker, Christopher Nkunku, to even ask questions of Virgil van Dijk. Raheem Sterling looks a shadow of the player he was, Noni Madueke thrust into the Anfield spotlight long before he is ready.

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Darwin Nunez hit the frame of the goal four times on the night. TruMedia

But for a customarily baffling night of finishing by Darwin Nunez, Chelsea would have been dead and buried by the interval. He ended the first game with 10 shots to his name, six more than the other team. What stood out was the missed penalty, one of a record four occasions he hit the woodwork in one night. He is on 10 for the season. No one else betters three. The misses will color the view of many but the Uruguayan keeps getting in prime scoring positions. That will lead to a bucketload of goals sooner or later.

Even when Nunez isn't scoring his gravity serves Liverpool well. His powerful running down the gut of the Chelsea defense dragged Thiago Silva and Benoit Badiashile with him, opening space that allowed Diogo Jota to get away with a heavy touch and still charge through the center backs before poking the ball home.

Jota, Nunez and Luis Diaz were all playing with the ferocity of players who had seen that Mohamed Salah tweet earlier on Wednesday. No one is giving up their starting spot without a fight. The same is evidently true at right back, where Conor Bradley is making a case to Jurgen Klopp -- and his successor -- that Trent Alexander-Arnold should just play as a full-time midfielder. Defending his flank well, Bradley flew up the flank when the chance presented itself. Lackadaisical tracking by Raheem Sterling and he was bursting through on goal, sweetly striking the ball across Djordje Petrovic. It was a strike worthy of Alexander-Arnold, who would have done well to deliver a cross as sweetly as Bradley did for Liverpool's third, Dominik Szoboszlai flicking home his fifth of the season

Chelsea might point to how different the game would have been if they had got penalties when Conor Gallagher collided with Virgil van Dijk or when Nkunku went down soon after finding the net, the latter a particularly baffling decision. Ultimately with 35 minutes played, the officials had ruled that half of the four touches the visitors had had in the box were dives. 

Pochettino's triple change at the break made clear how displeased he had been with his starting XI. Then again, Mykhailo Mudryk was never going to turn the tide. At the ground where he so thrillingly emerged a year ago, he typified the problems that have plagued him with just one touch. An explosive burst had taken him into the box but his brain was several yards behind feet that got mixed up as he lifted the ball over the bar.

Nkunku proved himself to be a cut above his teammates with a smart finish after spinning clear of Van Dijk and Alexis Mac Allister. At last, Chelsea had a player approximating the level of the opposition. At the rate they have accrued them over the past 18 months, there are plenty more bruising trips to Anfield ahead of them.