Reece James keeps Chelsea promise vs Liverpool as £95m decision finally rewarded

Eight games into the Premier League season and Chelsea's two defeats have come against Liverpool and Manchester City. At the same stage 12 months ago it was West Ham and Aston Villa who had beaten them.

The frustration for Enzo Maresca - who is working with a squad benefitting from their experience together, on the whole - is that neither of Pep Guardiola nor Arne Slot's sides had to be on top of their game to claim three points. In both matches Chelsea might have taken more, yet still found themselves on the losing side.

Maresca has been keen to point out that, in his view, the team is ahead of schedule. Exciting attacking play and attempts to build a connection with fans has certainly helped keep the good will even through draws to Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace, now the challenge is to get better yet still, especially with a tough run to follow.

At Anfield, Chelsea remained hot on the heels of Liverpool, keeping them honest. There was a dearth of clear chances despite some periods of nice possession, though, and ultimately mistakes at the back made any chance of picking up points harder to come by.

Concede twice to Liverpool, especially a more cautious and controlled version of Liverpool, and it is a tough ask to win. The manner of the goals, both self-inflicted and poorly defended, is even more anger-inducing.

On the one hand, being in the match until late on, given these shortcomings, is certainly a positive. Chelsea were battered 4-1 in this fixture last season and that could have been much worse. There has been improvement so far, but there are concerns about the disjointed elements on show.

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The struggle to get Cole Palmer involved in proceedings here, Christopher Nkunku's peripheral substitute appearance, and losing to a team far from in full flow are all reasons to be disappointed anyway. Regardless of pushing Liverpool close, not being outclassed isn't the big reward it might be if a better result wasn't so achievable.

Liverpool themselves didn't test Rob Sanchez substantially and created a comparable non-penalty xG during 90 minutes. They hardly dominated, but neither did Chelsea. A team of champions still had enough to punish a team lacking in important areas, and that is where the angst will come.

It leaves the match with a strange amount of juxtaposition at play. Chelsea were littered with mistakes and poor decision-making across the field but were within a late Renato Veiga header of claiming what would arguably have been a well-earned point. Conversely, they can have little to argue about after being the architects of their own downfall.

There has been little sign of fan outburst online following defeat, with performances instead largely being praised. Perhaps this is how a satiated and happy set of supporters should be more often. Have a good go at a strong team away from home, score a goal, attempt to do things in a uniform manner with a plan, and patience will follow.

But given the clear errors on show, it is somewhat going against the recent Chelsea grain to be so accepting of the situation. Ultimately, a 2-1 defeat at Anfield is not the worst result but there are worries for every plus seen on Sunday.

A pessimist might suggest there are fundamental issues and Maresca failed to address them on Merseyside, whilst an optimist can rightfully pick out enough from the game to be upbeat. Here, football.london takes a look at two of the standout storylines from the action.

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James' withdrawn role

After seeing Reece James return to team training during the international break, few predicted he would be thrust straight into the starting lineup against Liverpool. Even with suspension keeping Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana out of the backline, it was a shock to see Chelsea's captain in the first XI.

The game was his first competitive action in over five months following a decent portion of pre-season being completed without much of a hitch. Far from his marauding self, James played a clearly withdrawn role.

Still nominally a full-back, James often tucked inside to become a right-sided centre-back alongside Tosin Adarabioyo and Levi Colwill. Malo Gusto, out of position at left-back, drifted inside to midfield but also at times wider to almost become a wing-back.

It wasn't hugely impactful for Chelsea as Gusto found himself isolated against Mohamed Salah more often than Maresca and his defender would have liked. What it did do, is allowed James to almost play within himself.

Not tasked with streaming forward as a young, less restricted version of James would have, the 24-year-old instead played safe passes and swept up when holes appeared in front of him. Chelsea's high-line in the first half threatened to expose him one-on-one with Luis Diaz but that rarely happened.

Given both Maresca and James have made it clear that their aims are just to keep fitness over the season, it is not much of a surprise. No matter what sort of James Chelsea have, a Chelsea with James is better in the short and long term than one without his talents available.

Over time the hope will be that he can return to whipping in dangerous balls, dominating an entire flank. For now, James played comfortably from the start, probably more than he would have expected.

Partially at fault for Curtis Jones' winner, it will pain James to not be at his best just yet. Chelsea will surely benefit from him being back involved either way.

Jackson scores again

Nicolas Jackson bagged his fifth goal of the season against Liverpool, making it 19 in the Premier League in total since joining Chelsea for just less than £30million 15 months ago. Although not immediately a significant total, it matches that of Kai Havertz's Chelsea league career.

For a player who cost less than half of Havertz, Jackson is currently younger than the current Arsenal forward when he was in his third season at Stamford Bridge. Jackson has not only met Havertz's total at an earlier age, he has done it in 48 fewer games.

There is a small caveat to make here. Havertz played as a deeper midfielder, a winger, and an attacking No.10 before finally becoming a routine centre forward for the final two years of his stay at SW6. None of this should detract from Jackson's continued impressive outings for Chelsea.

He scored more non-penalty goals than Cole Palmer last term, with only Erling Haaland managing a higher non-penalty xG (expected goals) figure. Jackson would go on to underperform his xG by over four goals - owing to some inconsistent finishing - but is now levelling out for this year so far.

With three assists to go with his goals under Maresca, Jackson is proving himself to not only be more reliable in one-on-ones but just a generally elite striker all-round. Only Palmer, Haaland, Bukayo Saka, Ollie Watkins, and Salah have more combined goals and assists this season, other than Watkins, they are all boosted by set-pieces one way or another.

Here, despite not having much service throughout - owing to playing against Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate - Jackson put away his one real chance in a clinical nature. He showed just how effective he still is with the ball at his feet, too, going on one especially mazy run through the centre of the pitch.

Chelsea spent a combined £95million to sign Havertz and Jackson. The Champions League and Club World Cup winning goals make it hard to ignore Arsenal's new forward, but Jackson is undoubtedly a more effective player for the club and is only really just getting started.