Chelsea took the first leg of their double header this week with Liverpool, beating the Reds 2-1 last night in EFL Cup third round action at Anfield. Eden Hazard was the super sub hero, coming off the bench to score the game winning-goal. On the other side, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp is not happy about a couple calls made by VAR that went against his side.
Now the teams will clash in a Premier League fixture Saturday night at Stamford Bridge. It’s a match-up of the two teams who stayed perfect the longest, across all competitions, in 2018-19. Chelsea dropped their first points of the season last weekend in a goalless draw with West Ham United, while last night’s League Cup clash marked Liverpool’s first non-win of the campaign.
Both sides were able to rotate their squads in that match, meaning that they have most of their first team players well rested for this one. Both the Reds and Blues are pretty healthy at this point, with no new fresh injuries to report at this time. Liverpool’s long term injury absentees will not be returning to action in this one, while Chelsea forward Pedro has been suffering from a shoulder injury sustained against PAOK.
Thus, we should expect to see a lot of changes in the lineups at Stamford Bridge this weekend, which will look vastly different from the starting XIs we saw last night.
Here’s all the basic info that you need to know for this one.
Kick-off: Saturday Sept 29 5:30 p.m. (BST), 12:30 p.m. (ET)
TV Info: BT Sport (UK), NBC Sports (U.S.)
Live Stream: BT Sport website (UK), NBC Sports App (U.S.)
Odds for this match via Odds Shark: Chelsea 17/10, Liverpool 7/5, Draw 5/2
Chelsea FC starting XI prediction: coming soon
Liverpool FC starting XI prediction: coming soon
Prediction: Liverpool 3, Chelsea 2
Feel free to post your own Chelsea and/or Liverpool starting XI predictions, as well as your best guess as to what the final score will be. Enjoy the match everybody!
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, is currently a regular contributor to SB Nation, WGN CLTV and Chicago Now.
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