Moises Caicedo's shadow looms large as Chelsea and Liverpool hold each other to opening day draw

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It is a great pity that the actual matches of football that are supposed to herald the dawn of a new season have, as seemingly happens every year, been subsumed into the transfer industrial complex. A big victory on the opening day is not about kicking off the campaign with a bang but vindicating the business you have done in the market. Winning points is one thing, winning the window is the real quiz though.

This should not be a normal state of affairs, and yet it was impossible to escape the looming shadow that Moises Caicedo cast over a 1-1 draw between Chelsea and Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, a match that was invigorating in spite of the qualities these two showed, rather than because of it. It will be the hosts who conclude this week's on and off field tussles feeling much the happier, partly because they look the best placed to secure Caicedo, who is understood to have indicated he favors a move to London over Merseyside and who could be joined by Southampton's Romeo Lavia as well, but also for the way they battled back from an exceptionally loose first 25 minutes to claim a point to begin Mauricio Pochettino's tenure.

Had Mohamed Salah not drifted a step or two offside moments after his brilliant pass had teed up Luis Diaz for the opener, then the visitors may well have been out of sight before Chelsea got into their groove. In the broken early encounters of this curious approximation of what were once titanic clashes at the top of the Premier League, Liverpool looked by far the superior side, the individual quality of their front six shining through. However the early reprise of Jurgen Klopp's "heavy metal" football ran aground without the rhythmic beat that a midfield conductor and enforcer might have provided.

Klopp's solution to the six that isn't coming just yet drew many a murmur of incredulity an hour before kick off, opting to name what appeared to be a four man line of out and out forwards supported by the front-footed midfield duo of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai. "Liverpool reloaded," the German had termed it earlier in the week, and at their best in the first half that looked like a more than apposite description. Trent Alexander-Arnold's ever more pronounced drifts into midfield, on occasion as early as Alisson's goal kicks, might be a tweak to the system but plenty of the old Liverpool hallmarks were apparent.

The impressive Szoboszlai darted into the box early on, but he was equally prepared to plug gaps left by Alexander-Arnold, his drifting wide to the right opening up lines for Salah to dart into. At the nominal tip of the attack, Diogo Jota offered a reprise of some of Roberto Firmino's best qualities, pressing with pace and purpose and dropping deep to link play. In that first half Liverpool's pass map took on an extremely familiar shape, the possession numbers might have been their lowest since the start of the 2020-21 season but that might merely have been reflective of a team that was winning the ball back so high up that it would only take two or three passes to create a scoring opportunity. Better execution, and Salah holding his run a step longer before putting the ball in the net for what looked like Liverpool's second before VAR intervened, and they would have been out of sight early on.

Chelsea did not look like a side who were about to draw level when Axel Disasi turned in Ben Chilwell's flick at close range. The vice captain nearly went from provider to scorer soon after, rounding Alisson only to be flagged offside by no less narrow a margin than Salah had been ruled out. That passage of improved play spurred the Blues forward and by the second half they were dominant, led by the exceptional Enzo Fernandez. In a game riven by confusion in the engine room, the World Cup winner delivered a clear headed performance that showed an exceptional understanding of what he needed to do to impact the game.

That particularly translated to probing the weak point in Liverpool's defense, hitting Reece James and Raheem Sterling time and time again in spots that asked difficult questions of left back Andrew Robertson, who was obliged to become part of the three man defense in this new approach from Klopp. "Always between good players, we're looking for this complicity," said Pochettino of a gameplan that skewed heavily towards the right flank. Once Fernandez had drawn Robertson out he darted into the empty space, drawing one impressive block from Ibrahima Konate in the first half.

As all that pressure built, Liverpool found they had no one to plug the gaps. Klopp would contend it was a systemic issue, that "we tried to close the gaps by dropping instead of stepping in like we did early on." Few teams could have chased with the intensity of Liverpool's first 20 minutes, when they can't, robust enforcement is required.

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Mac Allister gives you all the ball progression you could want from a "six" (we should really call these screening midfield players a "four" in England but that's an article of remorseless pedantry for another time), but his instincts do not tend to lead him to the places where he can best shield a back four that proved last season that it needs high grade protection. Had he been in the right spots then an offside Chilwell would never have found the ball to roll it into the net. Again, in the second half he was nowhere to be found when Fernandez found space on the edge of the box, slipping it wide to Chilwell, whose effort was well blocked by Alisson.

Fernandez set the standard for midfielders on the pitch and his teammate Conor Gallagher rose to it. No one on either side made more ball recoveries than his 10, none by any player were as crucial as his tackle when Salah darted towards Robert Sanchez's goal. This was a seriously impressive display, but in the Gallagher fashion where he is extremely visible around both boxes but is not a controlling force on a contest in the way a Caicedo can be. There may well still be a role for a player who has clearly caught the eye of Pochettino, particularly if Chelsea gravitate towards a 4-3-3 rather than the 4-4-1-1 they defended in today. After all, the only midfielder on the home team's substitutes bench was 19 year old Lesley Ugochukwu. Even a team laying only in Premier League and domestic cups needs more bodies.

It was notable that Pochettino spoke of the end of the transfer window as a moment he might really begin to build his squad, subsequently adding: "We need good players, yes. We need to improve the squad, yes. For sure we are going to improve the squad." Klopp might have concluded the same though he laughed off his counterpart's comments in customarily acerbic fashion. "That's what each Chelsea manager wants, and usually they get it."

He might have been in the impudent mood of a coach whose side had probably got a point more than they merited, but one suspects he knows the truth. The season is already up and running and both coaches might feel they could have two more points on the board if only they had the midfielder they need.