Despite finishing 2 places behind them, Liverpool managed to do the double over Chelsea last season; a last-gasp 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge followed by a 4-1 spanking at Anfield. Brendan Rodgers will be desperately hoping for 3 points tomorrow, as his team find themselves in 12th place but unbeaten in 5. This game should provide us with plenty of interest as we see Di Matteo’s side still recovering from two poor results in the league but buoyed slightly by an all-important win midweek against Shakhtar.
Chelsea
It would be hard to argue with the fact
that, up until the Manchester United game a fortnight ago, Chelsea had been
playing the most aesthetically pleasing and efficient football. But these runs
must come to an end and there will be a point in even the most dominant
football team’s season where they have to win dirty. This game will a big test
of Chelsea’s resolve who, after the two Premier League games they’ve just had,
would not have enjoyed looking down the fixture list and seeing
newly-rejuvenated Liverpool as the visitors. This aside there is the fact that
Chelsea have Oscar, Juan Mata, Eden Hazard and Fernando Torres at their
disposal. A scary prospect for any defence, as proven by the 21 goals the Blues
have put away already this season, second only to free-scoring Manchester
United. Sometimes midweek Champions League games can have no effect whatsoever
on weekend games but this week is not one of those. The confidence boost that
Chelsea will have received from getting all 3 points against Shakhtar Donetsk could
be key, especially after the emotionally draining defeat at home to Manchester
United and the intensely frustrating 1-1 draw at Swansea last weekend. What
will concern Roberto Di Matteo is that his team haven’t kept a clean sheet in
the league since mid-September and have conceded 10 goals in the last 5 games
in all competitions (excluding the extremely insignificant League Cup). But
with John Terry back Chelsea fans will be hoping that this is all about to
change, despite the fact that Ashley Cole is out with a hamstring injury.
Liverpool
Unlike Chelsea’s recent rocky patch
Liverpool have been on an uncharacteristically steady run, with a win against a
Reading and then respectable (if slightly unlucky) draws against Everton and
Newcastle. Also encouraging, for a team who only managed 47 goals from 38 games
last season, is the fact that they have netted 9 times in the last 5 league
games, although 5 of these did come against Norwich. Despite all the hatred and
criticism that comes Luis Suarez’s way he ploughs on, he seems to thrive on it
in fact, with 7 goals in 10 so far this season he sits joint 2nd on
the top scorer list, second only to RVP. What Brendan Rodgers is really lacking
is a complete team performance; it seems that that rarely can the Reds put in a
performance where the defence is solid and the attacking football is flowing.
This is surprising from a team which boasts the attacking threat of Suarez,
Gerrard and the rising star of Raheem Stirling twinned with the defensive prowess
of Agger, Skrtel, Johnson and Carragher. The problem is, illustrated by Steven
Gerrard’s word to the same effect, that Liverpool have never replaced Xabi
Alonso. Perhaps it was difficult to keep him with Real Madrid lurking but it
seems that, based on the evidence of recent acquisitions Joe Allen and Jordan
Henderson, Liverpool have made no real effort to find a new Xabi. To be quite
frank Henderson and Allen have shown nothing to make me think that they are
good enough to play for Liverpool, they were good enough at Sunderland and
Swansea respectively, that was their ceiling. Henderson playing for England
during Euro 2012 was an embarrassment. This is an area that Liverpool need to
strengthen in January, forget about next summer. There is a plethora of
talented deep lying playmakers available throughout Europe and I cannot
comprehend why Liverpool have not made such a signing up until now.
Verdict
Following my rant about Liverpool’s
central-midfield inadequacies I have to admit that based on current form
Liverpool have a decent chance of continuing their fantastic run against
Chelsea in the league which has seen them win all four of their most recent
encounters. Despite the unbelievably strong Chelsea team and the fact that they’re
at home I still fancy Liverpool to come out of this with a point, Torres has
never fared well against his old team and Liverpool are riding high on
confidence while Chelsea are still building theirs back up. 2-2
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