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As the Premier League season winds down, the transfer rumor mill has heated right up. With Championship Sunday less than a week away now, it’s time to cast an eye at the player movement market.
There is no shortage of rumors when it comes to the transfer market. Follow this series throughout the summer as I look at the likelihood of some of the transfer rumors doing the rounds and whether I think they will work out.
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Liverpool won the FA Cup for the eighth time on Saturday, topping Chelsea FC in penalties. With a quick turnaround, they travel to Southampton in a must-win Premier League match. Southampton sit 15th in the table and are looking to play spoiler.
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Liverpool won the FA Cup on Saturday, via penalties, earning their second trophy of the season. Now they have to turn around, very quickly, to face Southampton in the Premier League.
Southampton last played May 7, when they lost to Brentford 3-0, so they’ll be much better rested. There is likely to be some rotation on Tuesday for the Reds, who suffered a couple of injuries and had to play 120 minutes on the weekend.
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Historically, Liverpool has had some phenomenal players in the club’s history. Names like Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish, Kevin Keegan, and even Steven Gerrard spring to mind. Some might even want to include modern-day stars such as Luis Suarez, Xabi Alonso, Sadio Mane, or Mohamed Salah on that list. More than one of Jurgen Klopp’s current day batch of trophy-winning, mentality monsters will probably see their names put on that list when it is all said and done.
And I think that come to the end of his career, we will remember one player from the current squad as the best of all time.
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Asked if he had a message for Southampton FC, in his post-match press conference today following his side’s 2-2 draw with West Ham United, Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola responded: “Yes, I would say, beat Liverpool four-zero!”
Yes, the Premier League title race is still not totally settled as City dropped two points today, meaning Liverpool can creep back to within 1 point with a win Tuesday night. Of course, City would still clinch the league with a home win on Championship Sunday, regardless of what Liverpool do. [Read more…]
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Egyptian magician Mo Salah limped off the pitch today in Liverpool’s FA Cup Final win over Chelsea, apparently injuring his leg. Salah, who was replaced by Diogo Jota in the 33rd minute, aroused a lot of anxiety among Reds supporters as the UEFA Champions League final looms in just two weeks.
The Reds needed penalties today to defeat the Blues and earn their second trophy of the season (EFL Cup was the first). Their odds of obtaining third will no doubt be much more favorable if they have their star man available against Real Madrid in Paris.
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All eyes will be on Wembley this weekend, as Liverpool at Chelsea meet in the FA Cup Final. Liverpool is seeking its second trophy of the year, and first FA Cup title since 2006.
Chelsea last won the FA Cup in 2018. Liverpool have a few nagging injuries, but have most of its first-team line-up available.
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Liverpool aim to win its second trophy of the season, Saturday, when they face Chelsea in the FA Cup Final. The Reds have won the trophy seven times, the last coming in 2006. Chelsea have won it eight times, the last coming in 2018.
Both teams have previously been runners-up seven times.
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It’s a massive year of seismic change for Mason Mount and Chelsea FC, but a lot of the major issues have already been settled. We know who the new owner is- Todd Boehly, as Roman Abramovich recorded a record sale price for his most prized asset. We also know that Chelsea will finish in the top four, as the 3-0 win over Leeds United all but clinched it yesterday. What we don’t know, however, is if they’ll end the season with one trophy (the Blues won the FIFA Club World in February) or two.
Mason Mount, one of the club’s most undroppable players, was asked about the importance of finishing in the top four, and besting Liverpool in the FA Cup final on Saturday,
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Liverpool and Chelsea have met once before in the FA Cup final, doing so in 2012 where the Blues won, 2-1, thanks to goals from Ramires and Didier Drogba. Saturday will be the Blues’ 16th appearance in this competition’s final match, versus the Reds’ 15th. Only Manchester United (20) and Arsenal (21) have appeared in the finale of the world’s oldest domestic cup competition.
Having been in charge of Chelsea for just one year and 108 days this Saturday, this will mark the fourth time that he leads the Blues out of the tunnel for a major domestic or European final (2x FA Cup, League Cup and Champions League).
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For only the second time ever, the same two sides (Chelsea and Liverpool) will contest both the League Cup and the FA Cup final in the same campaign. The previous occasion was 1992-93 when Arsenal beat Sheffield Wednesday in both finals. On Saturday, Liverpool will look to win both of England’s domestic cup competitions in the same season for the first time since 2000-01. Meanwhile Chelsea will try avoiding the fate of becoming the last team to lose both the League and FA Cup final in the same campaign since Middlesbrough in 1996-97.
This will be the fourth meeting of the season between Liverpool and Chelsea, with the other three matches all ending level, despite the Reds lifting the League Cup trophy via penalties in February. The last fixture between two English top-flight sides to see more draws in the same campaign was Arsenal v Chelsea in 2017-18 (4).
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Liverpool FC’s Premier League title hopes may be on the ropes right now, but at least their manager, Jurgen Klopp, is currently involved in not just one, but two verbal sparring sessions with opposing managers. We’ve already covered the back-and-forth with Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola here and here.
Now, on to the tiff with Tottenham Hotspur’s Antonio Conte. After Spurs played Liverpool to a score draw over the weekend, severely damaging the Reds’ title hopes in the process, Klopp said “I don’t like this kind of football” in reference to the Tottenham counter-attacking approach.
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