English Premier
2007-08-19 - Liverpool vs Chelsea
A Sports Betting Pick by Gooner
Eight days into the new season and we have our first clash of “big four” clubs as Chelsea travel to Anfield to take on Liverpool with both clubs having made winning starts to the season.LIVERPOOL
The Reds had a success on opening day – thanks to a superb free-kick late on from captain fantastic Steven Gerrard – beating Aston Villa at Villa Park and in midweek they successfully negotiated a tricky away tie against French club Toulouse on the Champions League.
The only bad news was that Gerrard fractured a toe in the midweek game and was substituted but manager Rafael Benitez has already said that Gerrard will be fine to play against Chelsea – albeit with the help of a painkilling injection.
It’s pretty early to judge a side – but after two games of the season my impressions are that Liverpool’s strength in depth is more apparent with Voronin and Torres – although neither of those players look like the 20 goal a season striker that Liverpool really needs.
CHELSEA
Chelsea have taken 6 points from their first two games with a 3-2 home win over Birmingham, and then a comeback 2-1 win at Reading to show good goal scoring ability despite the obviously leaky defence without John Terry running things – so his likely return against Liverpool will be welcome.
The Blues have mixed injury news with John Terry likely to return but Ricardo Carvalho went off with a knee injury and will definitely miss out. Didier Drogba also showed he was back coming on as a substitute to score the winner at Reading.
HEAD TO HEAD
Last season these two sides faced each other four times in Premier league and Champions League action with the home side winning all four matches while keeping clean sheets. Liverpool won the domestic league clash here 2-0, and 1-0 in Europe, while Chelsea scored a pair of 1-0 wins at Stamford Bridge.
Raw league stats show that Chelsea had won the league fixture here three times in a row before that Liverpool win – but that’s a bit of a red herring.
Head to Head Form
20/01/07 Liverpool 2-0 Chelsea
02/10/05 Liverpool 1-4 Chelsea
01/01/05 Liverpool 0-1 Chelsea
17/08/03 Liverpool 1-2 Chelsea
06/10/02 Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea
24/03/02 Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea
THE VERDICT
Home advantage is all important in this fixture – in the last 10 Liverpool v Chelsea clashes played at non-neutral venue there have been 5 home wins, 4 draws and just one away victory.
Liverpool are at full strength and after spending large during the summer are obviously keen to make a statement in this game about their chances of finally winning a Premier League title.
I make this game pretty much the standard situation for two top class sides – and looking at the prices see a little bit of value in backing the home side.
The Pick :
Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea
