{"id":5769,"date":"2026-05-08T08:35:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:35:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=5769"},"modified":"2026-05-08T08:35:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:35:27","slug":"liverpool-vs-chelsea-match-preview-predicted-line-ups-team-news-and-prediction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=5769","title":{"rendered":"Liverpool vs Chelsea: Match preview, predicted line-ups, team news and prediction"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Liverpool welcome Chelsea to Anfield in the Premier League on Saturday, looking to strengthen their position in the race for Champions League qualification.<\/p>\n

The Reds lost 3-2 to Manchester United last time out, but remain fourth in the table. They are level on points with fifth-placed Aston Villa.<\/p>\n

Chelsea suffered a 3-1 home defeat to Nottingham Forest, ending their hopes of qualifying for Europe\u2019s elite club competition.<\/p>\n

Match preview <\/h2>\n

Liverpool have one of the strongest home records in the division, with only four teams gathering more points on their own patch.<\/p>\n

They have lost just one of their last 10 league home games against the visitors (W4, D5).<\/p>\n

The Reds need four more points to guarantee qualification for the Champions League heading into this weekend\u2019s fixtures.<\/p>\n

Liverpool will look to attack from the flanks, aiming to exploit Chelsea\u2019s weakness out wide. The hosts will try to dominate possession, but will need to be careful of turnovers.<\/p>\n

The Blues have lost their last six top-flight matches, ranking bottom on the form table.<\/p>\n

This fixture offers them the chance to gain momentum ahead of next weekend\u2019s FA Cup final against Manchester City.<\/p>\n

Chelsea claimed a 2-1 victory in the reverse fixture, but have not done a league double over the Reds since the 2013\/14 season.<\/p>\n

The Blues could look to maintain a compact shape and force turnovers, exploiting the spaces behind Liverpool\u2019s full-backs.<\/p>\n

Team news<\/h2>\n

Liverpool\u2019s Alisson Becker, Alexander Isak, Florian Wirtz and Ibrahima Konate are doubts for this clash.<\/p>\n

Giorgi Mamardashvili, Mohamed Salah, Giovanni Leoni, Hugo Ekitike, Conor Bradley and Wataru Endo are also on the sidelines.<\/p>\n

\n
\"AC<\/div>\n
Trending<\/span><\/p>\n
AC Milan advancing in talks to sign Chelsea star Christian Pulisic<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Chelsea will be without Robert Sanchez and Jesse Derry, both of whom suffered head injuries against Forest.<\/p>\n

Estevao and Jamie Gittens are ruled out, while Pedro Neto and Alejandro Garnacho are doubtful.<\/p>\n

Interim manager Calum McFarlane has confirmed that Reece James and Levi Colwill are in contention to start.<\/p>\n

Predicted line-ups <\/h2>\n

Liverpool (4-2-3-1): <\/strong>Freddie Woodman, Curtis Jones, Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk, Milos Kerkez, Ryan Gravenberch, Dominic Szoboszlai, Florian Wirtz, Rio Ngumoha, Jeremie Frimpong, Cody Gakpo.<\/p>\n

Chelsea (4-2-3-1):<\/strong> Filip Jorgensen, Malo Gusto, Wesley Fofana, Jorrel Hato, Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo, Reece James, Cole Palmer, Enzo Fernandez, Liam Delap, Joao Pedro.<\/p>\n

Prediction <\/h2>\n

We predict a 2-1 win for Liverpool.<\/p>\n

Stats from transfermarkt.com, who scored.com & sofascore.com<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liverpool welcome Chelsea to Anfield in the Premier League on Saturday, looking to strengthen their…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5770,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}