Chelsea’s defensive cavalry can’t come soon enough with Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell in waiting

The first alarming incident came in the 14th minute and Chelsea got away with it. Just.

They were not so fortunate seconds before half-time when another, splits second concentration lapse led to Andreas Christensen’s red card, making a task that was already daunting much, much tougher.

By the time the third and fourth came – the latter another Kepa Arrizabalaga howler – the damage had pretty much already been done.

Andreas Christensen was given a red card just before half time after a lapse in concentration 

Kepa Arrizabalaga made another error as he gifted Sadio Mane a second goal with a slack pass

Chelsea actually began well defensively against the champions. Kepa had started confidently along with Kurt Zouma and Christensen in front of him. All was looking well.

Then came the sort of panic-spreading, potentially-match changing defensive slip Frank Lampard must fear his side are always capable of offering the opposition.

He has had to become far too accustomed to them for his liking.

Chelsea’s shot-stopper was caught in no man’s land as Christensen brought down Mane

Admittedly, how it came about was unfortunate. Reece James’s clearance cannoned off Jordan Henderson, span into and across the box but Kepa misjudged the situation once more and needlessly dashed way out of his goal and into no-man’s land.

Mohamed Salah rounded him, crossed for Roberto Firmino and only the backtracking Christensen denied the Brazilian a tap-in goal.

The TV cameras honed in on the already under-pressure Kepa, who is having such a torrid time it is hard not to have some sympathy for him, and then onto Chelsea legend Petr Cech in the stands.

Not only was he one of the Premier League and Chelsea’s greatest goalkeepers, in his current role as the club’s technical and performance advisor he has also been key to Chelsea’s pursuit of Rennes stopper Edouard Mendy.

Chelsea hope to announce his arrival this week after agreeing a deal with his French club.

And it didn’t take a genius to imagine the tone of conversation running alongside the pictures.

That first nervy moment led to a brief wobble and couple of dodgy clearances from Kepa which he and Chelsea survived then but were merely a sign of things to come.

Frank Lampard will hope to get Thiago Silva and Ben Chilwell into his team as soon as possible

There was no escape on the stroke of half-time when Henderson spotted a gaping hole in Chelsea’s defence and arrowed a lofted pass through it.

In a desperate attempt to make up for being slow to react Christensen dragged down a through-on-goal Sadio Mane.

Why referee Paul Tierney issued a yellow card and needed a VAR review before sending off the Dane was a mystery.

With that, Chelsea’s chances of making an early-season statement, displaying in this 90 minutes that they will be more of a threat to Liverpool this term, were gone.

Though they did not need to give Liverpool a helping hand, allowing Mane a free header and then Kepa, an accident waiting to happen, duly having one by serving up the Senegalese forward’s second on a plate with an awful, lazy clearance to present him with a tap in.

Earlier on the cameras had picked out Thiago Silva in the stands among Chelsea’s sidelined summer recruits.

He looked like a man itching to join in, standing on the Stamford Bridge steps, on his toes, surveying the warm-ups, while Hakim Ziyech and Ben Chilwell remained seated.

How Lampard must have wished he had his defensive reinforcements to call on.

The Chelsea boss was without four of his summer signings for the game against the champions

Chelsea have spent the bulk of their £200m-plus on their attack this summer, in a top-heavy overhaul in their bid to cut the 33-point gap between them and Liverpool.

In some ways it is understandable given how often their lack of ruthlessness cost them last season.

But, if the exciting Timo Werner and Kai Havertz – undoubtedly talented but underwhelming again here – have the potential to be the best of Chelsea’s business, the three defensive additions will perhaps be the most important.

Silva will be 36 this week but Lampard hopes he will bring a calm, experienced head and some much-needed leadership to a backline that was never settled last season and shipped 54 goals last season, the most in the top-10.

Even before Silva is ready Antonio Rudiger appears to have paid the price, an unused sub at Brighton on Monday he was not even in the squad yesterday.

Lampard was desperate to secure Chilwell having not been convinced by the left-backs he inherited when he took over last summer, Marcos Alonso or Emerson Palmieri.

Chelsea suffered several shaky moments in defence and were punished in the second half

As for Mendy, the hope was he would provide competition for Kepa. But the shaky Spaniard is making so many mistakes, unsettling those in front of him so often, that Mendy might have to be ready to start from the off.

The value of a goalkeeper who can be relied on was underlined by Alisson, whose penalty save from Jorginho and a second stop from Tammy Abraham, denied Chelsea even a glimmer of hope.

With Chelsea interest in West Ham’s Declan Rice too, Silva, Chilwell and Mendy may not be the last additions aimed at helping the Blues tighten up.

The defensive cavalry can’t come soon enough.