Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-1 at Anfield on Sunday to move back to the top of the table after a major test of their Premier League title bid.
Mohamed Salah’s penalty and Curtis Jones’ winner made it 10 wins in 11 games for the Reds since Arne Slott took over as manager.
Chelsea suffered their first league defeat since losing to Manchester City on the opening day of the season, although Nicholas Jackson briefly equalized in the second half.
With the win, Liverpool moved one point ahead of City and four points ahead of Arsenal, who play at the Emirates next weekend.
Chelsea finished sixth, seven points off the lead, but there was plenty of cause for optimism for the Blues from a performance that stretched Liverpool to the limit.
Liverpool’s only defeat under Slott came against Nottingham Forest after the international break in September.
The Dutch manager left South American internationals Alexis Mc Allister, Luis Diaz, and Darwin Nunez on the bench at that time.
Jones was given his second league start of the season as the England international scored the decisive goal to win a penalty for Liverpool.
Chelsea were down to 11 men after just six minutes when Tosin Adarabioyo brought down Diogo Jota.
The Portuguese international was still a long way from scoring, but the incident was almost identical to the one that resulted in Arsenal defender William Saliba being sent off in Saturday’s 2-0 defeat at Bournemouth.
Overcoming the accident, Chelsea regained their rhythm and dominated the ball to push the home team back.
However, Liverpool’s pace was always a threat, and when Salah fed the ball to Jones, Chelsea had Jones brought down by Levi Colwill.
Salah converted the penalty kick, giving Chelsea their tenth goal.
Minutes later, Cody Gakpo scored after a lightning-quick Liverpool counter-attack, but Salah was offside before he could make the assist.
It was the first sign of Chelsea’s punch in possession soccer.
Just before halftime, however, referee John Brooks pointed to the spot once more when Jones went down under a challenge from Robert Sanchez.
However, the Spanish goalkeeper had touched the ball before making contact with Jones, and VAR intervened.
In the second half, less than three minutes after the restart, VAR again came to the Blues’ aid and equalized.
Jackson reacted to Moises Caicedo’s through ball and calmly slotted home past Caoimhin Keleher.
The Senegalese striker was ruled offside, but replays showed that Ibrahima Konate played it in.
Liverpool’s goal came when Jones timed his cross perfectly to control Salah’s cross and flick it in.
Chelsea allowed Slott to defend the lead for the remaining 40 minutes, but struggled to create a clear chance to tie the game until the seventh minute of stoppage time.
Renato Vega headed in Cole Palmer’s free kick and Christopher Nkunku failed to touch Pedro Neto’s cross.