Liverpool host Chelsea for another great night under the lights at Anfield and here is a short preview ahead of the match on Sunday.
League leaders Liverpool and in-form Chelsea embark on one of their toughest challenges this season on Sunday. Enzo Maresca was the manager of the month and Cole Palmer was awarded the player of the month, which itself explains the rich run of form the Blues are in. On the other hand Liverpool under Arne Slot has made a really good start only losing one of the first seven Premier League matches. Although some say that the Reds have had the easiest fixture list and the next ten rounds of fixtures would draw a bigger picture on Arne Slot’s men. Let’s dive into the preview, team news and the potential line up for the blockbuster matchup between Liverpool and Chelsea.
LIVERPOOL VS CHELSEA PREVIEW
It’s always special when Liverpool play Chelsea and the fact that the game is at Anfield is a bonus. The home side currently sits on the top of the Premier League table, just a point ahead of title rivals Man City and Arsenal. The Reds have accumulated 18 points from the first seven games having picked up six wins. Their only loss came against Nottingham Forest at Anfield which was a huge surprise. Arne Slot’s men have also been on a perfect run since then and went on to win both of their UEFA Champions League matches. Liverpool have scored 13 goals so far this season and only conceded twice. That’s an impressive defensive display by Arne Slot’s side.
‘Very important. If you want to achieve something in this season, you need to be defensively really stable. We’ve been that until now.” said the Red’s manager when asked about the importance of having a good defense.
Chelsea didn’t start the season well but have gradually found their rhythm. Despite undergoing a few hiccups here and there but the form has been great. Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke and Nicolas Jackson have been brilliant. The latter especially has been a sort of revelation of the season. The Senegalese striker has made his critiques eat up their words. Currently they sit fourth on the table with four wins, a couple of draws and a loss. Anyway, the defensive display has been considerably better from Maresca’s side conceding only eight goals level with City.
The problem Chelsea are going to face is the absence of Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana, who are currently the first choice players. But with a lot of options at his disposal it would not be such a huge problem for Maresca to find a replacement.
TEAM NEWS
Liverpool
It was reported earlier that Liverpool goalkeeper Alisson Becker is sidelined at least until the next International break. He is out with a muscle injury suffered during the second half of their previous match against Crystal Palace. So yes he is out and will be replaced by Caoimhin Kelleher at goal. The other absentees aren’t certain as it seems. Japanese international Endo was ill and didn’t feature for Japan so he is a doubt.
Mac Allister and Tsimikas failed to feature for Argentina and Greece respectively in their first matches of this International break but were back for the second. And both of them didn’t feature in full training on Friday. But Arne Slot stressed on the fact that they do have some issues.
“Now we’ve got quite some issues from players coming back from the national teams, and we can only judge that perfectly today because today is the first time that they are all in and the first time that they are all training together again. So, let’s see after the session where everybody is.” said Arne Slot.
Chelsea
In the recent press conference Enzo Maresca confirmed that he has the full capacity of the squad available. He also confirmed the availability of Reece James who just returned from hamstring injury and started training with the team during the break. Anyway it is not clear whether he would start because Malo Gusto has been doing really well in the right back position.
Anyway Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana are both suspended after picking up their fifth yellow cards this season.
POTENTIAL LINEUP
Liverpool XI
Caoimhin Kelleher; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Andy Robertson; Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister; Dominik Szoboszlai, Luis Diaz, Mohammed Salah; Diogo Jota
Chelsea XI
David Sanchez; Malo Gusto, Levi Colwill, Tosin Adarabioyo, Renato Veiga; Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Pedro Neto, Cole Palmer, Noni Madueke; Nicolas Jackson.
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