please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Hello and welcome to the official match thread for Sunday’s Barclays Premier League encounter between Liverpool & Chelsea. The game is scheduled to take place at Anfield on Sunday 21st of April 2013 with a kick-off of 4PM. Sky Sports One will be showing the game (Build-up begins at 3.30PM) and BBC Radio Five Live have the radio rights to the game. Preview. Liverpool host Chelsea on Sunday afternoon with the return of Rafa BenÃtez to Anfield one of the big pre-match talking points. BenÃtez, the current interim manager at Chelsea, returns to Anfield for the first time since leaving Liverpool by mutual consent in June 2010. The Spaniard was popular with the fans in his six years at Anfield and can expect a good reception from the Liverpool faithful. Despite all of these pleasantries, there is an important game in prospect with both sides looking for the three points for different reasons. Rafa Benitez’s Chelsea side will be looking to further consolidate their place in the Premier League top four. A win at Anfield would see Chelsea move up to 3rd position and with a strong chance of securing Champions League football for another season. Liverpool, on the other hand, will be looking to make sure that their season doesn’t peter out. Brendan Rodgers and his side currently sit 7th in the Barclays Premier League and are six points behind their neighbours from across Stanley Park, Everton, in 6th position. Both sides also go into the game in different form. The home side, Liverpool, have been left frustrated in their last two games with West Ham United & Reading being the opposition. Both games ended in 0-0 draws with Liverpool being left frustrated by a number of missed chances which could have seen Liverpool pick up maximum points from those two games. Though that has been the story of Liverpool’s season… Consistently inconsistent. Take the month of March as the perfect example. Two wins over Wigan Athletic and Tottenham Hotspur set up Liverpool nicely for an away tie at Southampton but Liverpool were, quite frankly, abject and fell to a 3-1 defeat on the South coast. Brendan Rodgers and his side then responded by beating a relegation-threatened Aston Villa at Villa Park. All of this makes the form table slightly pointless from a Liverpool point of view! On the other hand, Chelsea have been in decent form in the league. Two wins from their past two games against Sunderland and Fulham have given Rafa Benitez’s side an opportunity to secure a Champions League place which was Benitez’s job remit when he replaced Roberto Di Matteo in November 2012. Normally, two wins from two in games Chelsea are expected to win wouldn’t be that impressive but the volume of games Chelsea have had to play in recent weeks makes their recent form, in all competitions, rather more impressive. Since Saturday the 30th of March (4 weeks ago today) Chelsea have had to play seven games including a two-legged Europa League quarter-final and an F.A Cup quarter and semi-final. In the same time period, Liverpool have played just three times! In that period, Chelsea were beaten by Manchester City in the F.A Cup semi-final but have progressed to the Europa League semi-finals and are in a good position in the fight for a top four place. This could force Chelsea and Rafa Benitez into rotation of the squad in order to keep the squad fresh but even if some players are rested/rotated, Chelsea still have some top class players in their squad. Onto the squads now and for Liverpool, not too many changes are expected. A 4-3-3/4-2-3-1 is expected to be used with the defence expected to be the same defence that has secured clean sheets in Liverpool’s last two games. In midfield, we can expect the three of Lucas Leiva, Steven Gerrard & Jordan Henderson to be deployed and the role of Lucas Leiva will be vital in tomorrow’s game. With Lucas being more defensively minded than Gerrard & Henderson, he will be expected to try and stop Juan Mata. This certainly won’t be an easy task. Mata has scored 10 Premier League goals this season and has 14 assists in the league so far. In his second season at Stamford Bridge, the Spanish midfielder has certainly improved and his inclusion in the shortlist for PFA player of the year is hard to argue with. You would have to say that the battle between Lucas & Mata will be key to deciding the outcome of the game. If Lucas can stop Mata from getting on the ball in that crucial area between the midfield and the defence, it will stop some of the supply to the Chelsea frontman. (One of Demba Ba or Fernando Torres) Even if Lucas can stop Mata, there is still the likes of Oscar & Eden Hazard to deal with! Onto the Liverpool attack now and in contrast to the reserve fixture at Stamford Bridge in November (A 1-1 draw) Brendan Rodgers has much more attacking options to call upon. In addition to Luis Suarez, Stewart Downing has forced his way into the first-team picture with some good performances and the January additions of Daniel Sturridge & Philippe Coutinho give Rodgers more options and talent to use. Coutinho has started his Liverpool career well with 2 goals and 3 assists from his first eight games whilst some of the pre-match focus will be on Liverpool’s other January signing, the ex-Chelsea striker Daniel Sturridge. Sturridge joined in January for a free rumoured to be around £12M and started Liverpool career very well indeed with 5 goals in his first 7 games. Things have fallen off slightly in recent games with no goals in his last four games but he still has 5 goals in 11 games which is more than respectable. Sturridge will be a threat with the Chelsea side all too aware of his qualities. Add into this the Premier League’s leading scorer in Luis Suarez and Liverpool certainly have the ability to trouble the Chelsea defence. Onto Chelsea now and as I have already mentioned, rotation could have an effect on the side that Rafa Benitez plays. In defence, it will be interesting to see if John Terry plays after his impressive performance in the 3-0 victory over Fulham in midweek. The Chelsea captain hasn’t been a regular in the side with Benitez seemingly reluctant to play the ex-England defender in every Chelsea game. However, it would seem difficult for Benitez to drop Terry after he helped Chelsea secure a clean sheet in the midweek game at Fulham… He also scored two of Chelsea’s three goals! Onto the attack and this is Chelsea’s strongest area. Chelsea normally play a 4-2-3-1 and the lone striker will go to one of Demba Ba or the ex-Liverpool striker Fernando Torres. Behind the lone striker, Chelsea have the option of playing Eden Hazard, Juan Mata & Oscar in the three behind the striker. I have already mentioned Mata as one of the key players for Chelsea but Hazard and Oscar certainly cannot be forgotten. Both have enjoyed solid starts in their first season in the Premier League and Hazard was nominated alongside Juan Mata as one of the six players on the shortlist for the PFA player do the season. So, an interesting game in prospect! Can Liverpool close the gap on Everton in 6th place with a win? Or will Rafa Benitez secure the three points on his return to Anfield? You’ll find out the answers to these questions, and more, on the official match thread on the Not606 Liverpool board. Do join in. (That includes the guests that read this thread. Sign up and get involved!) Injury News. Liverpool. Martin Kelly: ACL Knee Injury. Joe Allen: Shoulder Injury. Raheem Sterling: Thigh Injury. Suso: Groin Injury.* Fabio Borini: Shoulder Injury. Chelsea. Gary Cahill: Knee Injury.* Ashley Cole: Hamstring Injury.* Oriol Romeu: ACL Knee Injury. *Indicates the player could be available for Sunday’s game. Suspension/Other News. Liverpool. No suspensions currently recorded. Chelsea. No suspensions currently recorded. Liverpool 2 - 2 Chelsea Goalscorers: Chelsea... Oscar: 26th minute. Liverpool... Daniel Sturridge: 52nd minute. Chelsea... Eden Hazard: 57th minute. (Penalty) Liverpool... Luis Suarez: 96th minute. Liverpool: Reina - Johnson Carragher Agger Enrique - Shelvey Lucas Gerrard - Henderson Sturridge Suarez SUBS: Jones Skrtel Coates Coady Downing Assaidi Coutinho - Liverpool Substitution: Philippe Coutinho comes off to be replaced by Daniel Sturridge. (45th minute) Liverpool Substitution: Stewart Downing comes off to be replaced by Jonjo Shelvey. (79th minute) - Chelsea: Cech - Azpilicueta Ivanovic Luiz Bertrand - Ramires Mikel - Benayoun Lampard Moses - Torres SUBS: Turnbull Ferreira Terry Mata Hazard Oscar Ba - Chelsea Substitution: Eden Hazard comes off to be replaced by Yossi Benayoun. (77th minute) Chelsea Substitution: Oscar comes off to be replaced by Victor Moses. (81st minute) Chelsea Substitution: Juan Mata comes off to be replaced by Frank Lampard. (89th minute) - YNWA.
Thanks for the invite but I find it hard to read and comment while watching a game, missed a goal once doing this so never again !!
Thanks Chris. My only prediction is that both teams will score and Liverpool will win. I think it'll be 2-1 to the Reds but providing City win the earlier game there is leeway for error. I go into this game with low expectations so hopefully the players can prove me wrong. Win today and we will definitely get top 4, it's that simple really.
I want you lot to get top 4 to send HIAG into a deeper depression but I want us to catch the bitters more so, obviously.
I think regardless of today you will finish above Everton. You'll definitely beat them at Anfield and I expect them to drop points when they come to us as well.
Here's to hoping, not least so BB will have to resort to his usual form using facts about man u when discussing success between Everton v Liverpool
Really good thread Chris I can see it being an open game and a draw. I'm going for 3-3 as I honestly think there are plenty of goals in this. I'm setting off in about an hour to get to Liverpool. Looking forward to a special atmosphere from both sets of fans.. Come on Chels!!!
I think there;s no way rafa will allow an open game. I also think i should vote for chelsea win. I will now get my lucky lfc tshirt out and hoep for a miracle. LFC are in holiday mode so rodgers has proved himself inadequate to deal with the same players who stabbed kenny in the back doing the same thing. i smiply cnnot wait for this dragging endless holiday mode to end and for preseaso nto start so we can all pretend for a while that things are getting better. I hope this is pessimistic enough to break the jynx.
Yawn, soon you may grasp the simple fact, that in the present & for the last couple of seasons, we're just better than you. As for today, the return of the fat lad should see him leave with the 3 points. I wonder if you'll be chanting his name by he end of the game
Simple fact; competitions won in the last couple of seasons Liverpool - 1 Everton - 0 Picking up a few extra points in the league means absolutely nothing unless you are going to at least get into the Champions League. You proved yesterday once again that if a game is important (the points aren't meaningless or you can win a cup) you bottle it. It's not entirely your team's fault though, Moyes is a coward in the big games.
Picking up extra league points consistently over 2 seasons proves that we're the better team, it's a simple statistical fact, deal with it
It's going to be interesting this afternoon. I agree that Rafa is likely to want to keep it tight but I wonder about Chelsea's discipline. There are too many ball players in their side for them not to try and play if the game becomes open. It also depends upon the CB pairing that Rafa uses. For our part, things won't change. I really hope that, if he is fit, Rodgers keeps Suso in reserve. If we don't get the early goal then I could well see Suso become a vital element in a change to our ususal attack plan. If we use him to keep moving the ball in front of the their back 4 I can well see them leaving gaps for Suarez, Courtinho and Sturridge. It could be a really good day for us.
2 years is statistically meaningless even before you consider the fact that we changed manager. And it's only 1 year so far, there's still plenty of time for a Moyes bottle job.
Here are some photos from training. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
And here are some more photos from training. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
