Chelsea vs Liverpool Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Oct 22, 2015 @ 01:49 pm

Further misery was inflicted on Jose Mourinho and his Chelsea side as they lost the London derby against West Ham and also had Nemanja Matic sent off shortly before half time. Liverpool meanwhile couldn’t give Jurgen Klopp his first win as manager with a 3^rd successive draw under the German.

Can it get any worse for Chelsea? A 5^th league defeat of the season and Mourinho once again got himself in hot water with the officials and was sent to the stands for the second half after being invited into the referee’s dressing room at the half time interval against West Ham. Roman Abrahmovic might well have backed his man a fortnight ago but he is a very quiet individual and severely dislikes his side being in the public eye for negativity and whilst Mourinho continues to lose his cool the media will continue to target the special one. In 10 Premier League matches this season, Chelsea have conceded at least 2 goals in 8 of those and that a statistic very uncharacteristic of a Jose Mourinho team and something that will need to be addressed should Chelsea start to climb back up the table.

Jurgen Klopp watched his side gain another draw in his 3^rd game as Liverpool manager. He continues to be optimistic before, during and after the game but even he must be slightly concerned at how they haven’t yet managed a victory considering they took a 77^th minute lead against Southampton on Sunday. Christian Benteke scored a superb header that was his 14^th headed league goal since the 2013/14 season which is the joint-most along with Olivier Giroud. Liverpool dominated possession against their opponents but struggled to create goal scoring opportunities and looked vulnerable on the counter-attack, sound familiar Brendan Rodgers? Under Klopp they’ve had 62 shots at goal but scored just 2 and Klopp also becomes the 4^th successive Liverpool managed to record a draw in his first league match at Anfield.

Liverpool are unbeaten in 9 games but have drawn 8 of those games and only managed a narrow victory over Aston Villa. Chelsea have won 35 of the last 38 league matches at Stamford Bridge but 2 of them defeats came recently against Crystal Palace and West Ham. Chelsea were handed a 3^rd red card of the season in the league and puts them alongside Newcastle United with the most red cards this season. Liverpool have won the most aerial duels this season (56.5%) and also boast a 60% away from home.

Suspension affects Chelsea on Saturday for the early kick off with Nemanja Matic now serving a 1 match suspension for his two bookings at West Ham whilst James Milner picked up his 5^th yellow card of the season against Southampton and will be handed the same punishment. Fortunately for Milner he will serve that midweek in the Capital One Cup. Daniel Sturridge will be pushing for a return against his former employers but his injury problems make him a doubt for the trip to London.

Chelsea

Stats: W-3 L-5 D-2

Recent Form - LLWDL

Liverpool

Stats: W-3 L-2 D-5

Recent Form - DDDDD

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Chelsea (4-2-3-1) – Begovic, Azpilicueta, Terry, Cahill, Zouma, Fabregas, Ramires, Hazard, Willian, Oscar, Diego Costa

Liverpool (4-2-3-1) – Mignolet, Clyne, Sakho, Skrtel, Moreno, Can, Milner, Coutinho, Firmino, Lallana, Benteke

Injury List/Suspended Players

Chelsea – Matic (sus), Remy (inj), Courtois (inj, Ivanovic (inj).
Liverpool – Sturridge (inj), Ings (inj), Rossiter (inj), Gomez (inj), Henderson (inj), Flanagan (inj).

Chelsea v Liverpool Head to Head

League Positions