Liverpool vs Chelsea. Two Tottering Giants Duke it Out | OneFootball

Liverpool host Chelsea this weekend in the Premier League, and will be looking to exact revenge on the Blues after their last minute winner in the reverse fixture.

Grudge Match

Chelsea beat Liverpool 2-1 in October courtesy of an Estevão winner in the 95th minute. The landscape has changed dramatically for both clubs since that meeting seven months ago.

Enzo Maresca was still the Chelsea manager at that stage, and the Blues were actually top of the league after the win. For Liverpool, it only seemed as if their title defence had gotten off to a bad start, and Alexander Isak had not yet suffered the fractured fibula which would keep him out for most of the campaign.

Now the season is drawing to a close, this the 36th league game for both sides, and it has been a disappointing campaign for them both.

Sad Season for Liverpool, With A Ray of Hope

Liverpool would have expected a better year off the back of winning the league title and spending nearly $600 million in the summer, and Chelsea would have hoped for progress after winning the Club World Cup and Conference League.

Arne Slot has managed to keep his job despite many Liverpool fans turning on him, but has admitted the weight of losing so many games is telling on his players: “It always weighs heavy on players if you lose more games than you would want, especially at a club like this. These players are used to winning.

“Clearly in the Premier League we didn’t pick up the points we should have. We haven’t had a very good season in the Premier League but we’ve played better and not got the points we should have. In the Champions League we played to our standard. Over two games, no club has been able to beat PSG in the last two years.”

For the Reds now the aim is to confirm qualification into next season’s Champions League, and they are currently six points above sixth-placed Bournemouth, so a win would all but confirm their place in Europe’s premier competition.

Even Sadder for the Blues

For Chelsea, the picture is a lot more bleak. A month ago they were well in the running for a UCL finish, but six league losses on the bounce has shattered that dream. The Blues are currently ninth and if they finished there, would not be playing any European football next season. In some ways, that could be a blessing in disguise.

One only has to look at Manchester United this season and what not playing in Europe has done for them. They are third, and have confirmed a UCL finish, after finishing 15th last season.

Calum McFarlane has only been interim manager for two games, and his only league game in charge was an embarrassing 3-1 loss at home to a Nottingham Forest side that had made eight changes to their usual starting 11.

Asked if the Chelsea players have downed tools, McFarlane said: “No, I wouldn’t agree with that. The performances haven’t been good enough, we’re in a really bad run at the moment. The Leeds performance was a glimmer where we thought we could build on that and we weren’t able to do that.

“But I do see these boys every day, every training session, every meeting, in the gym, they are in a good place to go and attack games, we just haven’t been able to translate that on the game on Monday, so hopefully we can improve that on Saturday.”