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All-world defender and reigning PFA Player of the Year Virgil van Dijk does not see reason for Liverpool to panic following their first loss (2-0 to Napoli in Champions League on Tuesday night) of the season. He doesn’t see the defeat causing a hangover that could carry over to the next match, at Chelsea on Sunday either.
“It shouldn’t be a wake-up call — we have been performing outstanding since the start of the season so there is no reason to panic,” VVD said.
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The Premier League’s headliner fixture this weekend features two sides that are coming off very disappointing Champions League losses in midweek. The reigning European holders, Liverpool, fell 2-0 at Napoli on Tuesday night in group stage competition, getting their trophy defense off to a rough start.
As for Chelsea, they greatly deserved to win their UCL match at home versus Valencia, but due to their own wastefulness, ended up falling 1-0. Now the Blues will host the Reds, in a Sunday matinee that will have all eyes fixed upon it. Let’s run through the team news for both sides, starting with the visitors.
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The leading individual scorer in the Premier League has sent a message of warning to the side that currently tops the table.
Chelsea FC forward Tammy Abraham, whose seven scoring strikes this season are ahead of everybody else in the field, has said his side will move on from last night’s disappointing 1-0 UCL loss to Valencia quickly, and that they will channel that frustration into their marquee showdown at home versus Liverpool FC on Sunday.
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Liverpool FC begin the defense of their UEFA Champions League title Tuesday night with a trip to Napoli, a side that was also in their UCL grouping last term. The two sides split the 2018-19 meetings with each club winning 1-0 in their respective home leg.
The Reds will commence group E play as one of the leading contenders to win the entire tournament, and they’ll achieve their seventh European Cup/UCL title if they do so. However, they will be without the services of midfielder Naby Keita and starting goalkeeper Alisson.
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It’s good to be Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool FC right now. As the only unblemished side in the Premier League this young season, they’re currently sitting atop the table. They also have a pretty fit side, although they have been without their starting goalkeeper, Alisson, for most of the season thus far.
The good news is two fold. First, they have been able to keep winning and win big without him, so there is no need to rush him back from his calf injury. Secondly, he seems to be progressing very well in his rehab process, so it won’t be long until he returns.
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The very first game of Premier League match day five features league leading Liverpool FC hosting 14th place Newcastle United. While that sounds rather lopsided on paper, well, it looks even more mismatched when you consider the table toppers only have three fitness concerns while the team situated close to the drop zone could be without seven players.
Newcastle manager Steve Bruce, who seems to see his seat warming by the week, is likely to be without the services of Florian Lejeune, DeAndre Yedlin, Allan Saint-Maximin, Matt Ritchie, Dwight Gayle and Andy Carroll. Meanwhile Miguel Almiron should feature but is a doubt to be in the first team.
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As another boring international break winds to a close it’s time to look ahead to Liverpool FC hosting Newcastle United, the very first clash of 2019-20 Premier League match day five. Liverpool’s No. 1 Alisson Becker injured his calf in the season opening route over Norwich City and his return date has not been set yet.
However, Reds goalkeeping coach John Achterberg is happy with the Brazilian’s progress, and he has detailed that to the club’s website. Achterberg said that Alisson has been rehabbing with a famous World Cup alpine ski racer.
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Reigning back to back Premier League champions Manchester City, who last season became the first side to accomplish an English domestic treble, are also the first football club to exceed €1 billion spent on building their roster of players.
That’s according to the Switzerland based CIES Football Observatory, whose data sets show Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid right behind them, with each club spending north of 900 million Euro. The red side of Manchester comes in fourth, with 750 million euro invested in their current squad. Obviously, this statistic is yet another reminder of how underachieving and underperforming Ed Woodward/Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side are.
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Liverpool forward Sadio Mane is known for being a calm, cool, even-keeled kind of guy in public. To see him rage on the pitch, like he did today in the Reds’ 3-0 win over Liverpool, is extremely rare.
In other words, it takes a lot to set him off, and we saw him fuming while on his way to being subbed off at the Turf Moor, and apparently the anger was directed at teammate Mohamed Salah. Mane was seemingly upset at Salah’s decision not to send him a pass while he was in optimal scoring position.
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As Liverpool FC are currently topping the Premier League table, we’ve also seen the Reds, deservedly so, in the penthouse spot on many a media outlet’s global power rankings. A significant reason for this is back-up goalkeeper Adrian.
Just as Reds boss Jurgen Klopp will tell you, the summer transfer window acquisition has filled in nicely for the injured Alisson this season thus far.
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As table topping Liverpool head into their final match before the first international break, at Burnley FC on Sunday, their primary fitness concern revolves around their No. 1 Alisson Becker. At his media briefing ahead of the clash at the Turf Moor, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said that Alisson is progressing along, making strides on the comeback trail from his calf injury.
“He has made steps of course, but it was a proper injury, so it will still take time,” Klopp said. “How it always is with professional sportsmen, when you have a muscle thing and it takes long, then it takes a while as well until you can bring the muscle to at least the same level it was before.”
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Today was the UEFA Champions League group stage draw and as usual, people all over the world have very strong opinions about the results. As they should, when you see what UEFA presented to the world in Monaco during the UCL Draw on Thursday.
Tottenham Hotspur, as a “reward” for their runners-up appearance last season, have Bayern Munich in their grouping. The holders, Liverpool, earned an easy road, with a group that doesn’t feature any real heavyweights. And Manchester City may have received the most favorable draw of anybody! As for Chelsea, they have one of last year’s semifinalists, Ajax in their bracket.
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