Thomas Tuchel was delighted by 10-man Chelsea’s defensive display after Reece James’ red card in their hard-fought 1-1 draw at Liverpool.
Kai Havertz opened the scoring with a superb looping header, but Mohamed Salah levelled with a penalty during a dramatic end to the opening period.
Anthony Taylor sent off Chelsea full-back James for handling a Sadio Mane shot during a penalty-box melee after reviewing the footage on the advice of the video assistant referee.
The Blues were furious with the decision but channelled it in a positive fashion as Tuchel’s men dug deep to secure a point.
“I don’t like these early red cards of course – not at Liverpool when we play but in general,” the Chelsea manager said.
“(It’s a) pretty tough one but we did excellent and we are super happy how we did and we feel like we deserved a point.
“For me it’s a bit the spoiler of the game. Nobody I think wants to see that for 45 minutes, they want to see a high-level game and even me when I’m watching on TV I don’t like it."
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said: “The performance was really good against the strongest Chelsea side for a long, long time."
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