Chelsea host Liverpool in a fixture that carries extra weight after a difficult run of results for both sides. The Blues sit seven points behind league leaders Liverpool after just six matches, and Enzo Maresca faces increased scrutiny; a win over the Reds would be a significant response.<\/p>\n
Liverpool will surrender top spot this weekend if Arsenal beat West Ham United and they drop points at Stamford Bridge. Arne Slot\u2019s side have produced troubling defensive displays recently, and their attack has looked off the pace at times.<\/p>\n
Availability headlines the build-up. Maresca has revealed he\u2019s without “seven or eight players” for Liverpool\u2019s visit due to injuries and suspensions, with Cole Palmer the most notable absentee as he continues to recover from a groin problem. Trevoh Chalobah is suspended after being sent off against Brighton & Hove Albion, although Jo\u00e3o Pedro will be available despite being sent off midweek in the Champions League.<\/p>\n
Defensive injuries are causing major selection headaches for Chelsea. They will be without Tosin Adarabioyo, Wesley Fofana and Levi Colwill as well as the suspended Chalobah. Liam Delap, Andrey Santos and D\u00e1rio Essugo are also injured, while Mykhailo Mudryk remains provisionally suspended after a positive drugs test.<\/p>\n
Liverpool have their own absences. Alisson begins a six-week injury recovery period and will not play on Saturday, with Giorgi Mamardashvili set to deputise. Giovanni Leoni is a long-term absentee with an ACL injury, but Federico Chiesa could return to the squad after scoring from the bench last Saturday; he missed the defeat in Istanbul. Slot has confirmed that Cheisa and Hugo Ekitik\u00e9, who also suffered a knock against Galatasaray, both trained on Friday and could be involved.<\/p>\n
With Chelsea weakened at the back and Liverpool struggling defensively in recent matches, the game may be decided by which rearguard makes the fewest errors. Both sides retain potent attacking options, but neither can claim a consistently robust defence.<\/p>\n
Chelsea predicted lineup vs. Liverpool (4-2-3-1): S\u00e1nchez; James, Badiashile, Hato, Cucurella; Caicedo, Fern\u00e1ndez; Est\u00eav\u00e3o, Buonanotte, Neto; Pedro.<\/p>\n
Liverpool predicted lineup vs. Chelsea (4-2-3-1): Mamardashvili; Bradley, Konat\u00e9, Van Dijk, Robertson; Gravenberch, Mac Allister; Salah, Wirtz, Gakpo; Isak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chelsea and Liverpool meet at Stamford Bridge amid injuries and suspensions, predicted lineups listed<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[190,175,969],"tags":[355,1089,1100],"class_list":["post-3512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea","category-liverpool","category-premier-league","tag-alisson-becker","tag-chelsea-struggles","tag-defence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}