The battle of the best right-backs between Reece James and Trent Alexander-Arnold will rumble on in 2022/23.
Up first in the new season was the Liverpool man who, alongside his teammates, were heavy favourites going into their opening day clash away in west London against Chelsea's neighbours Fulham. The Whites started the lunchtime contest the better side and after much huffing and puffing, Marco Silva's side were finally able to breach the FA Community Shield winners in the 32nd minute as Kenny Tete's cross from the right was headed in by record Championship goalscorer Aleksandar Mitrovic.
It was a goal that the Serbian has become accustomed to scoring throughout his career in English football. One noticeable aspect of the goal was the defending from the Three Lions international. Something that will not help him with Gareth Southgate and his thinking with the Qatar World Cup just around the corner. And boy did Chelsea fans let him know just it.
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Here is some of the reaction to the incident.
Frank Lampard's former assistant @morriskid tweeted: 'I imagine Klopp would have liked TAA to jump earlier and be braver for the Fulham goal though.'
To which @TheBlueDayPod replied: 'Reece James would have done better on that occasion.'
@neveigoe demanded: 'don’t ever compare TAA to Reece James again'.
@MakThatGuy says: 'Reece James is the best full back in the league time to accept it'
@Ironicallyubi joked: 'Reece James clear I’m just tryna get a dunk ngl'
Liverpool's No.66 was bailed out by substitute Darwin Nunez who netted midway through the second half from the bench on his Premier League debut to level up.
However, nice trickery in the box from Mitrovic caught out Virgil Van Dijk who committed a foul and the 27-year-old made no mistake from the spot Mohamed Salah did equalise to spare the pair's blushes late on. Days in which Van Dijk and Alexander-Arnold both make mistakes are certainly rare to come by. James will hope he fares better when he takes to the field against Everton.
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