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Enzo Maresca, Chelsea’s manager, speaks to the cameras:
We have to try to manage the emotions. We have regained our momentum by winning some games. We are playing against winner players with winner mentality, so I expect a tough game.
Liverpool fans, your side have just cantered to the league title. In what position/positions would you like to see the club invest in over the summer? And who would you get rid of?
Answers to the usual place: [email protected].
Jacob Steinberg’s preview to our late kick-off at Stamford Bridge.
Here’s an extract:
The response to Karius’s mishaps was more ruthlessness. A goalkeeper was needed and Liverpool went for it in the next transfer window, paying £66.8m to sign Alisson from Roma. They were not hanging around. Alisson was 25 and elite. Remember his save in Liverpool’s win over Napoli in December 2018? They would not have won the Champions League without that intervention. Liverpool were rewarded for their seriousness; the mentality monsters built on becoming European champions by charging to their first league title in 30 years.
Chelsea, who have the second-youngest squad across Europe’s top five leagues and are monitoring the 19-year-old Ajax left-back Jorrel Hato, should take note. They will give Liverpool a guard of honour at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon and face a team with stability at their core. Van Dijk, now 33, is still the defensive rock and has signed on for two more years. Alisson, at 32, remains one of the best goalkeepers in the world. It is a simple equation: buying the best usually makes you the best.
Full-time at the Amex: Brighton 1-1 Newcastle. A decent result for Chelsea, that, with Newcastle dropping points. Diego Gómez missed a sitter to win it for Brighton in the 95th minute.
Huge news in the race for the Champions League: Newcastle have found a late equaliser at Brighton, with Alexander Isak converting a penalty kick. That game, now 1-1, is now into stoppage time and you can follow the closing moments here.
That’s what that goal does to the live table. A draw at the Amex and a win for Chelsea here will mean the Blues draw level on points with Newcastle, with three games to play.
A reminder that there were three Champions League semi-finals in the 2000s played out between these two sides (and one quarter-final in 2008-09).
Wesley Fofana aside, Chelsea are more or less at full strength, with Lavia’s re-emergence into the XI moving Caicedo to right back. A penny for the thoughts of Reece James on Chelsea’s bench.
Liverpool do make some changes: Quansah, Tsimikas, Endo, Elliott all start, but this is far from a makeshift side. And Konate, Diaz, Szoboszlai and Mac Allister all lurk on Liverpool’s bench.
The teams!
Chelsea: Sanchez, Caicedo, Chalobah, Colwill, Cucurella, Lavia, Fernandez, Pedro Neto, Palmer, Madueke, Jackson.
Subs: Jorgensen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Dewsbury-Hall, James, Gusto, George, Acheampong.
Liverpool: Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Quansah, van Dijk, Tsimikas, Endo, Jones, Salah, Elliott, Gakpo, Jota.
Subs: Kelleher, Konate, Diaz, Szoboszlai, Nunez, Mac Allister, Chiesa, Robertson, Bradley.
Preamble
What a pleasure it is to report on a Premier League game where there is actually something at stake. Liverpool may have sewn up the league title last weekend, but things remain very much in the balance for Chelsea, who are wildly chasing Champions League qualification alongside Manchester City, Newcastle, Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa.
Three teams currently lie on 60 points, with fifth-placed Chelsea currently holding the final Champions League spot on goal difference. It’s squeaky-bum time for the Blues, who will be desperate to return to Europe’s elite competition after a couple of years in the wilderness of Conference League, etc.
There might have been sore heads at the start of this week but don’t expect Liverpool to be off the pace. Slot’s side have nothing tangible left to play for but many players will be nervously looking over their shoulders before the summer transfer window opens, hoping to retain their place for next season. The fringe players will be under the greatest pressure to make their mark, and Slot may field a fair few of them today.
The Reds did not spend heavily last year at all, and the manager has already mentioned he is eyeing fresh recruits.
It’s certainly an intriguing match between two giants of the English game, although not for the normal reasons.
Kick-off: 4.30pm BST.
