Mauricio Pochettino’s first match as Chelsea manager ended in a breathless, hard-fought home draw with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool.
Both sides attempted to kick off the new season with a bang after disappointing campaigns, with the Blues particularly bruised having finished 12th at the end of a humiliating season.
Former Tottenham favourite Pochettino has been tasked with turning Chelsea around and oversaw a promising performance in their Premier League opener, with debutant Axel Disasi cancelling out Luis Diaz’s effort in a 1-1 draw.
The sides also saw one goal apiece ruled out for offside in a helter-skelter encounter that showed how much both would benefit from a midfielder like Moises Caicedo or Romeo Lavia.
Chelsea and Liverpool will renew their transfer battle for a number six after Sunday’s action-packed clash in the Stamford Bridge sunshine.
Mohamed Salah saw an early effort rattle the crossbar before expertly slipping in Diaz to score a goal that the Egypt star then coolly added to, only for it to be ruled out on VAR review.
Chelsea made the most of that let-off. Disasi levelled from a looping header by Ben Chilwell, who soon rounded Alisson to score only for the VAR to rule him offside as well.
The teams played out an entertaining second half without a winner and Salah looked irked to have been taken off as Liverpool hunted a second.
Chelsea ended strongly but made an uneasy start to Sunday’s game. Carney Chukwuemeka was booked in the fourth minute for a high foot and Diogo Jota mishit poorly after good work by debutant Dominik Szoboszlai.
Liverpool played with more edge than the new-look hosts, with Salah recovering a poor Cody Gakpo pass, turning and continuing to curl a 20-yard right-footed effort off the crossbar.
The former Chelsea player started the afternoon with the bit between his teeth and produced a moment of magic in the 18th minute.
Salah collected the ball on the right, ran at homegrown debutant Levi Colwill and fizzed an exquisite left-footed pass through for Diaz to slide home.
Liverpool’s travelling hordes – who had been subject of unsavoury chants from some Chelsea fans – celebrated wildly.
The west Londoners pushed for a leveller, but their defence continued to look susceptible.
Thiago Silva produced a key block to deny Salah and soon afterwards Trent Alexander-Arnold’s brilliant pass put the forward through to coolly dink over new Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.
It looked like a potentially decisive goal, only for the VAR’s intervention to give Chelsea renewed hope. Salah had strayed marginally offside and Pochettino’s Blues quickly capitalised.
Alexander-Arnold sent a threatening Raheem Sterling cross aimed for Nicolas Jackson behind his own goal and Liverpool failed to deal with the resulting corner.
Chilwell kept his cool as Chelsea kept the pressure on, looping a header over for Disasi to stretch and turn past Alisson, sparking 37th-minute celebrations.
Within two minutes the volume went up several more notches. Enzo Fernandez‘s nudged pass put Chilwell through to round Alisson and turn home what Chelsea thought was their second, only for the VAR to step in for offside once again.
Salah and Jackson had further shots as a frantic first half ended 1-1, with play continuing in similar fashion when play resumed.
There was an audible gasp when new Liverpool skipper Virgil van Dijk whistled just wide from the edge of the box, before Diaz’s weak headed attempt hit Jackson’s hand and went behind. He survived a VAR check for a penalty.
Chelsea had chances at the other end. Chilwell forced Sanchez into a save, skipper Reece James sent a speculative free-kick over and Jackson raced through to get a shot on Alisson’s goal.
Jurgen Klopp rang the changes in search of a winner and Salah looked unhappy to be withdrawn, ripping the strapping off his wrist as he angrily walked off the pitch.
Debutant Sanchez nearly gifted Liverpool a late winner, with his poor pass cut out by Alexis Mac Allister, but Darwin Nunez was unable to capitalise.
The substitute striker saw a curling effort from distance defect narrowly wide in stoppage time, with Chelsea then going close on the counter.
Mykhailo Mudryk went around Alisson following Jackson’s lung-busting run, but Ian Maatsen got crowded out from the cutback.
Kane gunning for Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record
Harry Kane has his eyes set on Robert Lewandowski's single-season Bundesliga goal record after scoring twice in Bayern Munich's 2-1 win over Eintracht Frankfurt, though he knows he needs "to get a move on".
Kane scored in both halves on Saturday to take his tally to 42 goals this season across all competitions, also reaching the 400-goal mark at senior level for clubs and country.
The striker scored 280 of those goals for Tottenham, holding the honour of being the club's all-time leading scorer, while he is also the most prolific player in England history with 62 goals for the Three Lions.
With 35 goals in 31 Bundesliga appearances this season, Kane now has his eyes set on another piece of history.
Former Bayern striker Robert Lewandowski holds the record for the most goals scored in a single Bundesliga campaign, netting 41 times in 2020-21.
Asked about the possibility of breaking that record with just three games remaining in Bayern's league campaign, Kane said: "It's possible, but obviously I have to get a move on!
"I've got to maybe score a few goals next week. It's there, it's in touching distance.
"It depends on the last few games of course, but it was nice to add to it today and score a couple of goals to help the team."
Bayern next host Real Madrid in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday, before travelling to face Stuttgart on Saturday.
Pochettino says VAR 'damaging' English football as Chelsea denied Villa win
Mauricio Pochettino claimed VAR is "damaging" English football after Chelsea saw a potential winning goal chalked off at the end of their 2-2 Premier League draw with Aston Villa.
Despite a bright performance, Chelsea found themselves 2-0 down at half-time on Saturday with Marc Cucurella putting through his own net before Morgan Rogers added Villa's second.
Goals from Noni Madueke and Conor Gallagher dragged Chelsea level as they penned Villa back after the break, but the Blues were enraged in stoppage time when Axel Disasi saw a potential winner ruled out.
Disasi headed home in the fifth minute of stoppage time to spark wild celebrations among the visiting Chelsea fans, only for referee Craig Pawson to disallow the goal following a pitchside VAR review, ruling Benoit Badiashile pushed Diego Carlos in the build-up.
With that incident coming just one week after Chelsea were denied a penalty in their FA Cup semi-final loss to Manchester City despite Jack Grealish appearing to handle Cole Palmer's free-kick, Pochettino has had enough.
"Everyone that was watching the game will feel disappointed. The referee said it was a foul and disallowed the goal after going to the VAR to confirm," he told TNT Sports.
"The referee is unbelievable and it's ridiculous. It is difficult to accept these types of things. In the semi-final it was handball and it was no penalty, the referee didn't check it.
"It is painful as it has damaged English football and I think Villa players and their fans didn't understand why the goal was disallowed.
"They said it was a foul and if you see the challenge… if we go into every single challenge like this and it is going to be a foul, we wouldn't finish the game with 11 players.
"We can talk about the performance or the decision – it is damaging the game."
Pochettino had no complaints about Chelsea's performance, though, as they avoided defeat for just the fourth time in 51 Premier League games when trailing by two or more goals at half-time.
The Blues previously achieved that feat in a 3-3 draw with Sheffield Wednesday in 1992, a memorable 2-2 draw with Tottenham in 2016 and another 3-3 draw with West Brom in 2020.
Chelsea racked up 21 shots to Villa's nine and put up 1.57 expected goals (xG) to the hosts' 1.1, with Nicolas Jackson and Palmer spurning glorious chances in either half.
"The performance was very good," Pochettino said. "We played really well and it is true in the first half we conceded too easily.
"To play Villa, who are fighting for the top four, I am pleased with the team. Now, we have to move on and the headlines will be about the disallowed goal."
New England Revolution 1-4 Inter Miami: Messi at the double as Herons run riot
Lionel Messi scored twice and laid on a goal for Luis Suarez as Inter Miami retained their three-point lead at the Eastern Conference summit with a 4-1 win over the New England Revolution.
A franchise-record crowd of 65,612 people witnessed a flying start from the Revs as they took the lead within just 37 seconds at Gillette Stadium. Carles Gil pounced on some sloppy play from Miami to tee up Tomas Chancalay, who lobbed Drake Callender for the opener.
However, Miami roared back with Messi leading from the front. They had a deserved equaliser just after the half-hour mark, Messi slotting home after latching onto Robert Taylor's throughball.
Messi had his second after 67 minutes, producing another composed finish after former Barcelona team-mate Sergio Busquets split the New England backline.
Messi was involved in another two goals as Miami added some gloss to the scoreline late on; his first-time shot was saved by Henrich Ravas but Benjamin Cremaschi was on hand to score on the rebound after 83 minutes, then the Argentine teed up Suarez for a curled finish five minutes later.
Miami stay three points clear of Supporters' Shield holders FC Cincinnati at the top of the East, with the Orange and Blue keeping pace by beating the Colorado Rapids 2-1 on Saturday.
Data Debrief: Messi rolls back the years
Ahead of Saturday's game, some feared Miami boss Gerardo Martino would opt to rest Messi after speaking of the risks of fielding the eight-time Ballon d'Or winner on New England's artificial pitch.
However, Messi came through 90 minutes with another mesmerising performance. He has now recorded a goal involvement in 10 straight club matches for the seventh time in his glittering career, last doing so for Barcelona between September and December in 2018.
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