The Ukraine international had only taken part in two training sessions with his new teammates prior to the trip to Anfield and, understandably, began life as a Chelsea player on the substitutes’ bench.
Chelsea had been largely toothless until the Mudryk’s 55th minute introduction, relying on set-pieces for the few sightings they had of Alisson Becker’s goal.
Mudryk changed all that, however, creating the best opportunity of the game will a superb piece of skill before firing into the side-netting and then demonstrating his electric pace to draw a cautionable offence from James Milner.
It was only a week ago that the 22-year-old appeared on the verge of joining Arsenal before Todd Boehly sprang into action and sanctioned an audacious hijacking.
Mudryk’s social media activity in the weeks that preceded his move to Chelsea seemed to suggest he was sweet on the idea of a move to north London but he now appears to be a fully-fledged Blue after he liked a chant mocking Arsenal’s lack of success in the Champions League.
Chelsea’s Mykhailo Mudryk Chant
He flew in from Ukraine, On Boehly’s private plane,
Mudryk said to me: ‘Have Arsenal ever won the Champagne League?
So I told him no, you know the place to go,
Then he said to me, ‘I wanna lift number three’
Chelsea manager Graham Potter, meanwhile, defended his decision to hold start Mudrky on the bench against Liverpool and is looking forward to pairing him with fellow January recruit Joao Felix.
He said: ‘He’s not played since November, hasn’t had any game time, so it would’ve been a risk to play him from the start.
‘It was more managing his minutes at the backend of the game. We thought it was the right time to bring him in.
‘He’s only been with us a couple of days and he’ll get better the more he is with us and the more we understand him and the more he understands us. But promising signs.
‘He’s had two sessions with us but from watching him at Shakhtar, seeing his quality there, he is dangerous in one-vs-one situations, in the final third he can make things happen, he’ll get supporters of their seats.
‘Dribbling actions are really high and he knows where the goal is. Our job is to help him settle into the team, help him settle into the country and league, and gain an understanding of us and how we can help him.’
MORE : Chelsea offer £33m flop in deal to sign Barcelona midfielder Franck Kessie
MORE : Steven Gerrard hails Mykhailo Mudryk as ‘the real deal’ after impressive Chelsea debut
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