Federico Chiesa spotted doing something really ‘cheeky’ on his first Liverpool start against West Ham

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Liverpool summer signing Federico Chiesa was finally handed his first start for his new club in the League Cup meeting with West Ham.

Chiesa, who arrived from Juventus in a deal worth £12.5million, was given 59 minutes by Arne Slot in the 5-1 win at Anfield.

Steven Gerrard loved seeing Chiesa make his Premier League debut against Bournemouth, with the Italian certainly creating plenty of excitement on Merseyside.

The Liverpool winger was certainly slow in getting into the match against West Ham, with Chiesa struggling to get involved in the action early on.

But he played a key role as Liverpool equalised after 25 minutes through Diogo Jota, having gone behind through a Jarell Quansah own goal four minutes earlier.

Michael Brown loved ‘cheeky’ Federico Chiesa moment in Liverpool vs West Ham

Chiesa found himself with time and space in the box, but couldn’t quite connect properly with his acrobatic effort.

It was, however, met by the head of Jota, whose brave effort resulted in an assist going the way of Chiesa on his first Reds start.

The Italian international came close to another soon after, and while his superb run down the left didn’t result in a goal, it did impress the home fans and indeed former Man City and Tottenham Hotspur midfielder Michael Brown.

Speaking on BBC Radio 5 Live, the pundit noted of the run and nutmeg of Vladimir Coufal: “It’s nice to see from Chiesa.

“In tight areas, that’s where top players are clever, cheeky little nutmeg. Exciting front-footed play from Liverpool.”

Federico Chiesa impresses on first Liverpool start

Chiesa finally got the chance to impress from the start under Slot, and after a quiet start he certainly impressed the Anfield faithful.

It will, however, be very difficult for regular starts to go his way, both due to his lack of fitness and the star-studded attack that is available to Slot.

Jota, Darwin Nunez and Cody Gakpo all started alongside Chiesa against West Ham, with Mohamed Salah and Luis Diaz watching on from the bench from the first whistle.

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But as was the case against the Hammers, Slot needs to constantly rotate his attackers in order to keep them as fresh as possible.

And that should spell good news rather than bad for Chiesa, who should once again feature against Wolves on Saturday, either from the start or from the bench.

Chiesa was always unlikely to play 90 minutes against West Ham, with the attacker needing to slowly build his match fitness.