Chelsea meet Liverpool at Stamford Bridge in an epic Super Sunday blockbuster match, as the Premier League season starts to draw to a close.
Five points off Tottenham and with both having midweek catch up games, Chelsea know that a win here will close the gap to two points whilst Liverpool can move closer towards a Champions League spot with victory.
Team news
Chelsea have full-back, Marcos Alonso available after completing a three match ban.
David Luiz (knee), Danny Drinkwater (calf) and Ethan Ampadu (ankle) are still ruled out
Liverpool is without versatile defender, Joe Gomez as he continues to recover from ankle problems.
Joel Matip (thigh) and Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain (knee) are both ruled out for remainder of season whilst Emre Can could return for the Champions League Final in three weeks time.
Adam Lallana has resumed training but it is unclear if he could feature in squad or not.
Form
Chelsea enter this match unbeaten in their last four, winning three and drawing one.
The three wins however all came on the road via four different goal scorers and only Oliver Giroud has managed a brace in that run.
Liverpool are also in good form, winning and drawing three apiece from their last six league games. They also have kept four clean sheets during that run, including last time out against Stoke City in a 0-0 draw.
Mohamed Salah has netted seven goals during this run, with Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane the only other Liverpool players to score more than once.
Stat Attack
- Four of the last six meetings have ended in draws, finishing 1-1 with Liverpool winning the other two, albeit on Chelsea’s ground.
- Only four times in league this decade has this fixture failed to see both teams score at least once, with Chelsea winning three of them by a 2-0 result.
- Oliver Giroud has come on as a sub 21 times this season across Arsenal and Chelsea.
- Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas has only taken one less corner than Manchester City’ Kevin De Bruyne this season as they battle to become this season’s top corner taker., taking 143 corners to De Bruyne’s 144.
- Both teams have scored twice from free-kicks this season, a joint league high alongside Manchester United.
- Chelsea have been caught offside 102 times this season. Only five other teams have recorded more offsides this decade, with Liverpool setting the highest with 128 in 2011-12 season.
- Chelsea currently have 60 goals compared to the last time that they failed to finish in top four in 2011-12, netting 65 times that season.
Where can game be won or lost?
| Per Game Average | Chelsea (home) | Liverpool (away) |
| Corners | 8 | 5.28 |
| Fouls | 9.65 | 9.39 |
| Shots | 18.94 | 15.06 |
| Shots on Target | 7.24 | 5.17 |
| Goals | 1.65 | 2.17 |
| Yellow Cards | 0.94 | 1.33 |
| Red Cards | 3 | 1 |
| Goals per First Half % | 50 | 48.7 |
| Goals per Second Half % | 50 | 51.3 |
We should be in for a fantastic game full of attack in both halves, with the result coming down to clinical finishing.
Taking chances definitely will be vital because Chelsea have wasted over 11 shots in not converting onto target, whilst Liverpool have wasted 9.88 of their average shots off target.
Once on target, Liverpool look to be the most clinical with just three of their shots on target not being turned into goals.
Discipline shouldn’t be an major factor unless Chelsea lose their cool, which is likely given that they have seen red at home three times this season.
So we should hopefully see two strong attack minded teams battling for victory here.
Prediction
I definitely am expecting a really attacking game with both teams scoring.
A draw would be a good bet but I fancy Liverpool to have the edge given their strong away form.
Prediction: Chelsea 1-2 Liverpool
Jake predicts: Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool
Result: Chelsea 1-0 Liverpool