Chelsea players form a huddle during the penalty shootout against Liverpool
(Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)
One journalist was far from impressed with the antics of Chelsea defender Malo Gusto in his team’s Carabao Cup clash against Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday night.
Early in the second half, the 23-year-old received the merest of contact from Virgil van Dijk and threw himself to the ground in apparent agony, clutching his leg in melodramatic fashion while the Reds captain simply looked at him with a face of bemusement.
pic.twitter.com/YLpuRHvLbf
— Mac (@Livburner06) October 28, 2026
A couple of minutes later, the Blues left-back was gently nudged by Bradley Barcola in front of the Kenny Dalglish Stand and again fell to the turf dramatically, even removing his boot and waving it at the assistant referee to try and dupe him into thinking that he’d been grievously harmed.
Chelsea defender slammed over melodramatics
After the first of those rather amusing incidents, Liverpool Echo reporter Ian Doyle took to X with a rather sardonic verdict on the coming together between the Chelsea defender and the LFC skipper.
The journalist posted with tongue firmly in cheek: ‘Gusto is down after an altercation with Van Dijk and may now have to retire from the sport’.
Malo Gusto waves his boot at the assistant referee
Image via @postanythingLFC on X
Want more Empire of the Kop coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust
Gusto should be embarrassed
We just hope that the Chelsea left-back watches those two incidents and is shamed into cleaning up his act, with his amateur theatrics not painting him in a positive light whatsoever.
The way in which he threw himself to the ground after the mildest of contact from Van Dijk and Barcola was embarrassing, as was his waving of his boot towards the assistant referee.
That’s not the kind of behaviour that we want to see from any player on a football pitch, no matter what team’s colours they’re wearing, and Xabi Alonso should pull him aside and reprimand him over it.
We can only imagine how melodramatic Gusto would’ve been if a Liverpool player had shoved him in the same way that Emmanuel Emegha did to Van Dijk later in the second half.
For his own sake, we’d implore the 23-year-old to refrain from such needless play-acting in the future.