A happy-sad homecoming for David Luiz, who's now lost both of his Chelsea debuts to Liverpool by one-goal margins at Stamford Bridge.
But on a night when not many players in Blue shirts emerged with too much credit, David Luiz was arguably the one player to not put a foot wrong — comfortable on the ball, good vision (wonder how close all those offsides on Hazard were), good pace, and he kept it simple when it needed to be kept simple. Yeah, okay, maybe that one wild and high clearance. That was not so great. And the team as a whole didn't play too well, especially in the first half, so it's tough to elevate any individual above that baseline low, especially at a position like center back where so much depends on the play of others around you.
While Chelsea's newest signing was able to elevate himself above the narrative, Chelsea themselves fell back into last season's patterns for the first half and dug a whole large enough that not even this season's comeback kids could climb out of in the second. After the match, David Luiz talked to Sky Sports about what went wrong, with special emphasis on the first goal (not much to analyze on the other goal, a perfect hit following an imperfect clearance).
"I think [conceding the first goal] was more about [paying] attention, because normally you have a line to defend on a free kick but they took the free kick short and played quickly and we didn't organize the line quickly, so that's why there were two or three players [open] at the back..."
-David Luiz
The breakdown was indeed palpable. But, as David Luiz says, the season doesn't stop, we just need to improve and do better. Onwards and upwards!