Liverpool vs Chelsea Preview

Liverpool host Chelsea in arguably the biggest game of this weekend’s Premier League action.  The two sides meet at Anfield in Saturday’s evening kick off with Chelsea starting the weekend in third place, three points ahead of fifth place Liverpool.

Antonio Conte’s side travel to Merseyside in slightly better form of the two in the Premier League having won four and lost two of their previous six matches. The defending champions were beaten 1-0 at home to current league leaders Manchester City, and also lost 2-1 away to bottom club Crystal Palace, giving the Eagles their first points of the season.

Liverpool on the other hand have won three, drawn two and lost one of their last 6 in the Premier League. They drew away to Newcastle and at home to Manchester United, while their loss came at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur, who thrashed the Reds 4-1 at their temporary home, Wembley Stadium. Being the home could give Liverpool an advantage and their attacking displays may make a bet on Liverpool worthy.

Jurgen Klopp’s side are currently the 2.2 favourites with Betfair whilst Chelsea are way out at 3.6.  The hosts were held 3-3 by Sevilla in the Champions League on Tuesday whilst the West London club were comfortable 4-0 winners in Kazakhstan.

Liverpool’s defensive display midweek may give some encouragement to Chelsea, who themselves have the in-form pair of Alvaro Morata and Eden Hazard up front.

The Merseyside club have failed to beat Chelsea at their Anfield home in the last five encounters, with their last victory being a 4-1 win during the 2011/12 season. They have actually been more successful at Stamford Bridge, having conquered the Blues for the last two seasons in a row.

With the Premier League’s top scorer, Mohamed Salah, along with the likes of Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho, this has the potential to be an end-to-end thriller.

With Antonio Conte reportedly unhappy at Chelsea and also believed to be the Italian FA’s favourite choice to become the new Italy manager, it will be interesting to see if the players remain focussed on defeating Liverpool, rather than their manager’s future.

The following graphic looks at the statistics of both Liverpool and Chelsea leading into this Saturday’s match. It includes a variety of stats that look at the previous meetings between the two clubs, the transfer records and this season’s top players: