Ross – @rossic89
Liverpool head into match day 37 against one of their biggest rivals in recent times. I’m not sure rivals is the right term but both sets of fans really despise each other.
The club that killed off our 13/14 title hopes were ironically the ones that beat Man City this season to hand us the Premier League title. They will now be the club that has to give us a guard of honour before the game whilst having to watch us lift said trophy after it.
Well, I reckon they can get off after the game like but you know, show some respect lads. I’m sure they did it after we beat them in the Super Cup.
The Opposition
As mentioned, Chelsea recently beat Manchester City in the league and they also beat Manchester United in the FA Cup this weekend. Thanks for the help there lads, but you can stop now.
Now there is a argument to say City and United have defensive issues and United have a slight issue with their goalkeeper who earns £300,000 but can’t catch his own shit at the moment, whereas Liverpool are pretty solid. If you ignore the Arsenal game that is. We do have the best defensive record in the league after all. Hold onto that nugget of information.
Chelsea though will be full of confidence, they’ve won 4 out of their last six games. With wins coming against Norwich, Crystal Palace and Watford. Not the hardest challenges to be fair but you can only play what is in front of you.
Having said that, the lost 3-0 to Sheffield United and 3-2 to rivals West Ham. Hardy convincing. Consistency isn’t their specialty but that doesn’t mean they won’t be dangerous. Going forward that is.
They’ve defensive issues, which given the fact they’ve “won” the transfer market already having secured some lad called Timo Werner, will research him sometime, not sure if he is any good. They had the Hakim Ziyech deal done ages ago and according to David Ornstein Kai Havertz might not be far off either.
Fair play. Make the most of the market. But you’ve honestly got some issues at the back.
Chelsea have conceded 49 goals in the Premier League this season.
For context, Leicester, United, Tottenham, Wolves, Sheffield United, Burnley, Arsenal and Crystal Palace have conceded less.
That’s fucking mental.
But also good for our front three. There is a weakness there. Exploit it lads.
They typically play 4-3-3 in the league but switched it to a 3-4-3 at the weekend. More of a 5-2-3 really with Alonso and Reece-James as full backs. Worked to be fair to them. Will be interesting to see how they line up on Wednesday night. And with a top four place on the line, I’m not expecting an easy ride at all. They will also have the additional confidence of knocking us out the FA Cup – Billy Gilmour ran Fabinho ragged in that game and Adrian had a few brain farts. Expecting it to be much more even this time.
Olivier Giroud doesn’t start regularly for Chelsea but he’s a pain in the arse and awkward to deal with. He could be used to to target Joe Gomez or one of the full backs.
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The Reds
For Liverpool it’s job done. It has been for a while. With the points record unattainable there is only pride to play for. And three points, obviously.
We’ve not been great since ‘project restart’ and I partly understand it. I don’t like it. But I get it. Jurgen and the lads will want three points on Wednesday night because this particular gang of lads really like winning football games but also for confidence, morale and the after party. Going to fetch the trophy after the game will be glorious however we look at it, but it will be even sweeter on the back of a win and no Twitter meltdown.
Hendo is still injured, hopefully he’ll don a full trackie as he does some form of shuffle afterwards. Lallana won’t play as Klopp has mentioned and I suspect if Lovren is on his way out, he won’t play either.
The big question as always is who plays in the middle of the park. Keita has been a bright spark wether he has started a game on made an appearance off the bench. Ox needs some game time, confidence and rhythm in central midfield ahead of next season for me, but he’s hardly taken the chances he has been given with both hands.
Curtis Jones will also fancy his chances of starting too. He’ll want to get that number 48 shirt out again before he switches to the no.17 this summer. As well as staking his place in the side for next season.
And then there is Gini who has bizarrely come under-fire this weekend – presumably because some fans would rather have Thiago. Defo a good debate to he had there. But don’t reply to his social posts telling him to leave. That’s dickhead behaviour.
Liverpool probably don’t need to concern themselves with playing Newcastle on Sunday. Sure, it’s a quick turnaround but we’ve nothing to play for. I just hope they don’t do themselves in ahead of next season.
The Stats (Credit: Stat Zone)
I’m going to pick out a few of my favourite stats provided by Stat Zone and basically use it as propaganda to make it sound like this is 3 points in the bag already.
The Verdict
Hard to call given Liverpool’s recent results and certain moments in their play. Can guarantee Alisson and van Dijk will be fuming with the roles they played in Arsenal scoring/Liverpool losing last week. They are professionals, they will put it right don’t you worry about that.
Equally, Chelsea’s form is all over the show too. They were great at the weekend but Jurgen and his boys have had a big rest which can be a huge advantage given our style of play.
I’ll go 3-1 Liverpool. Salah to get all three.
Let me know your thoughts below or on the Twitter.
Ross – @rossic89
