Jeff Stelling has backed Liverpool to do something against Chelsea this weekend that no other club has managed in the Premier League so far this season.
Arne Slot’s side return from the October international break top of the table, with the Blues also enjoying a strong start to the campaign as they sit fourth.
Curiously, both teams have a 100% away record in the 2024/25 top flight at this point, although the ex-Sky Sports anchor believes that Enzo Maresca’s side will lose that particular boast by 6:30pm on Sunday.
Stelling predicts familiar result
Stelling was giving his weekend Premier League predictions on talkSPORT, and given the recent history of meetings between these two teams, his forecast is perhaps an unsurprising one.
The 69-year-old said: “Top of the table against the side in fourth place, and that’s surprised a few people after [Chelsea’s] poor pre-season.
“Liverpool have an array of attacking talent, but their success so far this campaign has been built on their rock-solid defence, with only two league goals conceded and five clean sheets in their seven games.
“Five of the last six league meetings between these two have finished all square. History might just repeat itself. I’m going to go Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea.”
History suggests it’ll be a close contest
Liverpool’s 4-1 thrashing of Chelsea in their last Anfield meeting in January was a distinct outlier among recent clashes between the duo. Incredibly, that’s the only one of their last nine head-to-heads in all competitions where the teams weren’t level after 90 minutes (Transfermarkt).
As Stelling pointed out, the previous five league fixtures between the duo were all drawn before that one-sided affair in L4 nine months ago, and the fine form of both teams coming to this weekend’s match suggests that there won’t be much (if anything) to choose between them.
While the Sunday 4:30 kick-off is helpful in terms of recovery after an international break, the flip side is that both Manchester City and Arsenal will have played before then and may have leapfrogged us in the table by the time we get underway at Anfield.
Liverpool being at home also brings an extra pressure to win, particularly having already dropped points on Merseyside this season in a shock defeat to Nottingham Forest last month.
One significant factor which could play into our hands, though, is that Chelsea will be without two of their regular back four in Wesley Fofana and Marc Cucurella due to suspension, and the Reds have the potency in attack to capitalise on any lack of chemistry in the Blues’ defence.
We’ll go with a hard-earned 2-1 home win to keep Slot’s men top of the table by the end of Sunday!
