GW2: Liverpool beat Bournemouth, Chelsea's misery continues

Liverpool picked up their first win of the season after coming from behind to beat Bournemouth at Anfield last weekend (Aug 19). Bournemouth drew first blood after Alexander-Arnold's sloppy defending allowed Semenyo to fire in a thunderous strike into the bottom right corner, giving Allison no chance of stopping it. 

Despite scoring early, Bournemouth failed to pose any immediate threats, which meant Liverpool had the upper hand and dominated most parts of the field for the remainder of the game. 

Luis Diaz has been in fine form not only since the start of the season when he opened his account through a beautifully-taken goal against Chelsea last weekend but he's been showing his true credentials during the pre-season matches. 

It took Liverpool about 20 minutes or so to respond to the early goal by Bournemouth through a sumptuous goal by Diaz after he controlled it effortlessly and fired in a half-volley, courtesy of a Diogo Jota assist. 

Diaz missed a huge portion of matches last season after he suffered an injury, which ruled him out of many key fixtures leading to Liverpool's desire to stay in Europe. Liverpool missed out on a top-four finish last season, which meant they will compete in the Europa League instead of the Champions League. 

But who cares, honestly? We have won the Champions League six times, the most for a top-flight English club! To those in the tournament, good luck catching up. 

Salah, who has scored in all the first games of the new season since he became a Liverpool player, had a rather disappointing start to the campaign last week after he failed to score. His frustration became more expressive after he was subbed off for Harvey Elliott in the 77th minute of the game. 

That was not the case this week as he finally found the net on the rebound after missing a penalty in the 36th minute. Liverpool won the penalty after Szoboszlai, their new midfielder, was brought down just inside the box. 

Szoboszlai deservingly won the Man of the Match award after a scintillating performance throughout the 90 minutes. After having sold Henderson, Fabinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Naby Keita and a few more in this transfer window, Jurgen Klopp stacked up the midfield with a couple of influential midfielders, including Szoboszlai and Alexis McAlister from Brighton. 

While Szoboszlai had a tremendous 90 minutes on the field, McAlister couldn't complement because he was sent off just after the 58th minute for a so-called dangerous tackle on Christie. Both players went for the ball and it was unfair to show the red card just because Christie was first to reach the ball. 

Although a man was down, Liverpool refused to rest on their laurels and went on to put the icing on the cake as Jota made it 3-1 after Szoboszlai's shot, which was deflected off a defender and blocked by the goalkeeper, fell kindly on the feet of the Portuguese. 

Enzo's penalty saved. 

Meanwhile, Pochetinno's wait for a first win in the new season as Chelsea's new head coach continues after the Blues suffered a shocking 3-1 defeat at the hands of David Moyes's West Ham United. 

It was a night to forget for Chelsea's 100 million midfielders - Enzo Fernandez for missing a penalty and Caicedo who committed a foul and gave away a penalty, which allowed West Ham to seal the night with a win. 

License to midfield - Trent Alexander-Arnold's new love affair

I still remember when Jurgen Klopp took charge of Liverpool several years ago, he made changes to the team that many managers in the past failed to do, which was to make the team great again by bagging some significant silverware, including ending the 30-year wait to get their hands on the English Premier League trophy. 

The achievements were made possible after the German-born finally bought players capable of winning games, ultimately possessing a champions mentality, displaying top draw performances week in, week out, relentlessly!

I even remember blogging about Liverpool's new-look midfield when they paid a good amount of money to bring in players such as Fabinho, Keita and Shaqiri to make sure the players in the centre and flanks were a force to be reckoned with, mainly serving as back-ups for the forwards. 

From the new-look midfield era, Liverpool is slowly becoming the old-age midfield. It's a fact, the intensity, hunger, and winning mentality have been very bad, and it's no surprise their form has been rock-bottom despite still being 7th on the table. 

Many say the departure of Sadio Mane to Bayern Munich was a curse that Liverpool should not have welcomed at a time when they were close to winning not the treble but the quadruple the season before, but only went on to win the FA Cup and Caraboa Cup. 

Well, it's not like they didn't win anything. Two is better than none, but maybe winning the Champions League and becoming Premier League champions for the second time under Klopp would have been more significant. 

So, when Mane left, Liverpool bought Uruguayan forward Darwin Nunez from Benfica for a record 75mil euro. The only reason I could possibly think of why would Klopp splash such a hefty amount on Nunez was that the forward had a great spell at Benfica when Liverpool squared against the Portuguese club in the Champions League last season. 

He scored several at both ties but as for his time so far at Liverpool, I can say it started rather poorly, especially when he picked up his first red card in his debut match at Anfield against Crystal Palace. 

Since then, he's been a threat on the left, and Liverpool had another steal when they brought in Cody Gakpo from PSV Eindhoven. Cody was flying in the World Cup. He's got energy, skills, strength and a spectacular finisher in front of goal! 

While Liverpool's forward line is looking ever-competitive, especially with the returns of Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz from injuries, the midfield and back-four remain a worry for now. But they might have just found the perfect solution to resolve the ageing midfield after Trent Alexander-Arnold was given the license to explore his new role as a defensive central midfielder just behind the likes of Jordan Henderson and Fabinho. 

TAA has been criticised one too many times for flopping in his right-back position. He was often second best when facing the likes of Vinicius Junior (Real Madrid), Mitoma (Brighton) and Martinelli (Arsenal). 

Defensively, he is not too bad but definitely below average considering we have other right-backs in the Premier League who are far better than him, namely Reccee James, Aaron Wan-Bissaka or even Luke Shaw. 

Trent, who played a key part in Liverpool securing a last-minute equaliser against Arsenal a few weeks ago, delivered a sumptuous cross after bursting through the midfield, nutmegging Zinchenko before putting it on the plate for Firmino to head in to make it 2-2. 

That was when the Trent-midfield love affair started. Since then, Klopp gambled and fielded Trent just behind the two central midfielders in the previous two matches against Leeds United and Nottingham Forest. 

Guess what, Liverpool emerged victorious in both, hitting Leeds for 6-1 and narrowly cruised past Nottingham 3-2 at Anfield. Unsurprisingly, Trent was influential and played an integral part in the wins, assisting three goals! That's more than what he has achieved since the start of the season. 

I have always said this. Trent is the future of Liverpool. He has what it takes to be a Liverpool legend and this new role that he has taken on actually isn't really new after all because when in the academy, he played more of a holding midfielder. 

Well, does that mean Liverpool doesn't have to spend in the next transfer window? Absolutely not! The recruiting process must happen considering the squad is ageing and we can expect quite a number of outgoing players when the season ends. 

Naby Keita, Oxlade Chamberlain are some wantaway players in the team. And the news about Roberto Firmino, who won't extend his stay at Anfield is heartbreaking! Bobby was among the best and he's made some memorable moments that we can remember for a very long time. 

Just like Mane, when that happens, it's going to be truly emotional.