Chelsea left Anfield with a 1-1 draw on Saturday, and Levi Colwill’s side will take more from the point than the table suggests. Liverpool went ahead after six minutes through Ryan Gravenberch, but Enzo Fernandez pulled Chelsea level after half an hour when his free-kick kept going through the penalty area and into the net.

The result ended Chelsea’s six-game absence from Premier League points, a run that had already been framed by a loss to Nottingham Forest before the trip to a ground that can unsettle visiting teams. Marc Cucurella said the response was strong after that setback, adding that Chelsea showed they are a really good team when they fight and play together.

He also said the visitors might have deserved more than a draw at points, and that the first half was clear control for Chelsea. “We dominated the game in a lot of time,” he said, while also calling for the team to build on the result and grow in confidence after it. For a side that has been searching for a cleaner rhythm, the point offered a brief answer to a harder question: whether the team could recover quickly enough to matter again in the season’s closing stretch.

The tension is that the next match matters even more. Chelsea face Manchester City in the FA Cup final next week, a winner-takes-all fixture that will say far more about the season than a steady performance at Liverpool. Cucurella called it simply a final, and said the only thing that counts is winning the trophy. He added that Chelsea have a few days to prepare and that many of the players are the same ones who won two trophies last season, a reminder that this group has already shown it can finish the job when the stakes are highest.