Chelsea are back in action again this Saturday, and they face fellow Premier League strugglers Liverpool. That sentence alone feels very weird to type!
The club’s struggles are shown in their league positions, with Liverpool and Chelsea both currently on 28 points in 9th and 10th position, with the aforementioned only ahead of goal difference. A real sign of how both clubs and managers have been in a rut lately. Imagine thinking Liverpool and Chelsea would be in a mid-table battle in January, at the start of this season!
Liverpool’s demise this season has really surprised me, but I’m certainly not going to be fooled by it. They’ll be back, I’m sure. Just as Chelsea will be also.
Liverpool have a 52% win probability, and Chelsea have just 24%. Despite form of both clubs, I still see the home side as the favourites here. Chelsea as the underdogs can often be a good thing these days, so I’m happy with that.
Liverpool have lost to Brighton and Brentford in their last two league games, conceding six goals. There is absolutely scope for us to hurt them on Saturday, but they have scope to hurt us as well, having a much better goals scored ratio than us this season.
Graham Potter will have some big decisions to make, the first one being the formation. This is one prediction that he might go for:
I think it will mainly be the same team from the Crystal Palace win, with many of them not deserving to be dropped. One wildcard I am thinking about though is David Fofana. I know he was ignored last game, but Kai Havertz missed training yesterday and we know how out of favour (poor) Pierre Emerick Aubameyang is, so maybe Potter throws Fofana in. I also do think we will see a debut for Mykhailo Mudryk, basing off what Potter did with Joao Felix.
I don’t think we will have Reece James or Ben Chilwell available for a bit longer yet either, unfortunately.
Let’s hope Chelsea can use the buzz around a win last weekend, as well as adding the exciting player Mudryk to the squad!
