Chelsea v Liverpool Preview

Chelsea will look to bounce back following last weekend’s shock defeat at Wigan which destroyed their perfect start to the season. Chelsea looked subdued and uninterested at times in the 3-1 defeat at the DW Stadium and it was Carlo Ancellotti’s first taste of losing since taking charge of Chelsea. The Blues, who are 2^nd in the league, will look to protect a 14 game unbeaten run at Stamford Bridge, against a Liverpool side that are currently full of goals, and are breathing down their neck in 3^rd spot. Prior to last week’s loss, Chelsea had enjoyed a kind early season set of fixtures but they face their stiffest test yet this weekend. Chelsea fumbled to a 1-0 midweek Champions League win over Apoel Nicosea, but the result rather than the performance would’ve gone some way to aid recovery after the Wigan defeat. To add insult to injury during the Wigan defeat, goalkeeper Petr Cech was dismissed for a professional foul and is suspended for the Liverpool tie where Hilario or Russ Turbull will stand in, but on a positive note, Michael Ballack should return after missing last week’s defeat with a calf problem.

Despite losing 2 of their 7 games, Liverpool are nicely placed in the table and have been ruthless in front of goal, scoring an impressive 22 goals in their 7 matches. They scored 6 of those in their last league match at home to Hull City, with another 3 goals away from home in their previous outing at West Ham, with on-fire striker Fernando Torres being responsible for 5 of those 9 including a hat-trick in the Hull Match. Liverpool couldn’t take their positive league form into Europe however, as they went down 2-0 at Fiorentina in their midweek Champions League group match. It was an awful show from Liverpool and an irate Rafa Benitez has promised it will be “a totally different Liverpool” that shows up at the Bridge on Sunday. It will need to be too if Liverpool are looking to recreate the first leg of a double they did over Chelsea last season.

It’s highly likely that a simple bout of complacency was to blame for Chelsea’s shock defeat last weekend, so I’d say that after Ancelotti has got stuck into his troops during the week, there’s every chance the Blues should bounce back with a bit of added fight for good measure. For all of Liverpool’s recent goalscoring antics, they’ve had some relatively easy games and they’ve shown a vulnerability in defence that a team like Chelsea could exploit. So with Chelsea at 2.15, I’m finding those odds pretty hard to resist.

Stakes 5/10 on Chelsea at 2.15 with Boylesports. Click here to place your bet!