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.
Andrew Robertson overcame a slight knock to start in midweek, and he certainly played like somebody who wasn’t fully himself. The usually solid fullback struggled to a poor performance, and after the match appeared to delete his own Twitter account.
Elsewhere, Liverpool will very likely continue to be without the services of long term absentees Alisson, Nathaniel Clyne, Divock Origi and Naby Keita in this one.
Flipping over to the hosts, striker Tammy Abraham, the league’s leading scorer, has vowed that his side will take out their midweek anger and frustration on their next opponent.
It certainly sounds great in theory, until you remember that the Merseyside club is the only one not to drop any points yet this term.
Midfielder/Winger Christian Pulisic, he of the highest transfer fee for any American player ever, doesn’t have any fitness issues that we know about, but he’s missed out entirely on Chelsea’s last two matches. The 20-year-old seems to be falling way down the Stamford Bridge depth chart.
Stellar young attacking player Mason Mount is one player who is hurt, suffering a bad blow to his ankle on Tuesday that ended his night early. He’s considered a major doubt for Sunday. N’Golo Kanté returned to training with the side before the Valencia loss, but he was not risked in midweek.
He is somebody that the west London side absolutely needs for this one.
Callum Hudson-Odoi and Reece James are closing in on returns, but this match comes too early for the pair to feature.
Liverpool FC at Chelsea FC FYIs
Kickoff: Sun Sept 22, Stamford Bridge 4:30 pm local
Starting XI Predictions: Liverpool Chelsea
Google Result Probability: Liverpool win 48%, Draw 26%, Chelsea win 26%
PL Form Guide: Liverpool WWWWW Chelsea WDWDL
Best Odds via Smart bet: Liverpool win 2.02, Draw 3.85, Chelsea win 3.82
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” regularly appears on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
You can follow Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com on Twitter here and his cat on Instagram at this link.