England Premier League
Sunday 13th August 2023
Kick off at 4:30pm BST
Venue: Stamford Bridge
Match Preview:
It’s interesting how the random ‘computer’ throws up the fixtures for the season and these two clubs present us with two heavyweight teams who had poor seasons by their standards. That should be underlined for Chelsea who despite throwing money at the project nothing seemed to work. The good news is that Mauricio Pochettino has been brought in and many of the under performing ‘stars’ of the team have been moved on, this feels like it could be a new chapter for the Blues, let’s see if it will be.
Chelsea have been able to raise over £200m in the summer and it’s difficult not to think of a time where so much of a previous team's selection has been gutted. Gone are the following: N’Golo Kante, Mason Mount, Kalidou Koulibaly, Mateo Kovacic, Edouard Mendy, Kai Havertz, Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Cesar Azilpilicueta, Christian Pulisic and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, it is stunning but it shows how the club have been ruthless too, they knew what had to be done and it is time to move on. So which new faces have come in? The £200m raised has been spent with the most eye-catching being Christopher Nkunku from RB Leipzig, Nicolas Jackson comes in from Villarreal, Robert Sanchez has been bought from Brighton and Axel Disasi comes from Monaco for almost £40m. What has been interesting is that most of these players are not household mega star names but perhaps that is the way to go for now, only time will tell.
Chelsea were unbeaten in their pre-season games in the USA but only really played two sides of quality. The first was against Newcastle and that game finished 1-1 and they played Borussia Dortmund in their final friendly and that ended 1-1 also.
Liverpool want to be playing in the Champions League again and they will look to put last season well and truly behind them and try to challenge Manchester City and Arsenal for the league title once again. There have only been two players brought into the club at present however the Reds have spent over £100m acquiring them. Dominik Szoboszlai has come from RB Leipzig and will shore up midfield. Alexis Mac Allister has been bought for a superb price at under £40m from Brighton. Plenty of Liverpool stalwarts have left too including Naby Keita, James Milner, Roberto Firmino, Fabinho and Jordan Henderson so this really does represent much like Chelsea change for the club. In Pre-season the Reds played five games including a 4-0 battering of Leicester and they lost once in a 4-3 thriller to Bayern Munich in Asia.
Team News:
Chelsea: Christopher Nkunku has a knee injury and will miss the start of the season. Wesley Fofana, Armando Broja and Marcus Bettinelli are all out from injuries sustained last season.
Liverpool: Thiago Alcantara has a hip injury and is ruled out but could return by the end of the month.
Chelsea vs Liverpool Head to Head:
Last season this fixture finished 0-0 but perhaps that shouldn’t have come as a surprise given that their last 4 meetings have ended in this scoreline.
Chelsea have not beaten Liverpool in the league when at home for 5 years.
There is an 80% chance to see under 2.5 goals.
Chelsea vs Liverpool Prediction:
We feel this game will be hyped up and could live up to expectations. Chelsea need to start positively and there will be some pressure on them to produce the goods at home. At the same time Liverpool have a very solid recent record over them and seem to know how to frustrate the system. But with a new manager, new tactics and a lot of changes, it will be in the small details how this game is decided.
We are tempted for a draw given how recent results have gone but we won’t sit on the fence for this one and with the Poch factor back in the English top flight and home advantage we expect to see a win for Chelsea albeit a narrow one. This is a game that should open up more in the second half and one of the most fascinating to witness this weekend.
Chelsea vs Liverpool Betting Tips:
Chelsea to beat Liverpool at 2.75
Correct Score: 2-1 to Chelsea at 10.50
Over 2.5 goals at 1.58
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