Chelsea captain Reece James has recovered from injury and is available to make his season debut at Liverpool in the Premier League on Sunday, manager Enzo Maresca said.

Slot opted to leave all his South American players on the bench mindful of their long trip back to the UK following the international break. Luis Diaz, Alexis Mac Allister and Darwin Nunez were all named among the substitutes with Dominik Szoboszlai lining up in midfield alongside Curtis Jones and the in-form Ryan Gravenberch.

Mohamed Salah is back to his very best, while Chelsea star Cole Palmer did not have his best day and two of the Blues' brightest contributors were limited to under an hour.

Chelsea are about to face Liverpool at Anfield, and since the teams came out an hour ago, there’s only been one topic anyone is interested in – the selection of Reece James for Chelsea.

Enzo Maresca’s decision to select Reece James today was surprising, given the defender hasn’t played a competitive game in 6 months, and the decision to select Romeo Lavia from the start was only

Mohamed Salah scored a first-half penalty after Curtis Jones was brought down by Levi Colwill. Liverpool briefly thought they had a second spot-kick after Robert Sanchez sent Jones crashing to the floor, but a VAR review showed the Chelsea keeper got the ball first and the decision was overturned.

Liverpool's "heavy metal" approach under Jurgen Klopp may be a thing of the past - but Arne Slot passed his first big test against Chelsea.