Chelsea vs Liverpool Predicted Lineups, Preview, Odds & Prediction

So many classic and memorable meetings between these two teams, from the Benitez Mourinho era, to the Gerrard slip, to Klopp’s Liverpool beating Chelsea in what felt like every domestic cup Final for a few years straight. Both teams are coming in to this game fresh off a loss last weekend, although those losses leave both teams in different places. Liverpool sit 1st after the loss to Crystal Palace last weekend, which leaves them with 5 wins out of 6. They have yet to put together a full 90 minute excellent performance, but the second half against Palace shows the levels this team can hit, with them dominating Palace in that second half and creating a ton of chances they failed to put away. Chelsea’s outlook after their loss to Brighton is far less hopeful however, with the Blues sitting 8th after having one of the easiest fixture lists to begin the season. They have won 2, drawn 2 and lost their last 2 league games, the pressure on Enzo Maresca is mounting and they now face the unenviable task of having to deal with the Champions looking to put the wrongs of last weekend right, and will have to do so without Cole Palmer and 3 first team centre-backs. Can Chelsea pull off the upset at home and kick-start their season, or will a hungry Liverpool team looking to get back to winning ways put Chelsea to the sword?

• Can Chelsea pull off the upset without Cole Palmer?
• Will Liverpool get back to winning ways and remain top of the table?
• Favourite bet: Liverpool to win – 11/10!

Find out all of that and much more in our preview of Chelsea vs Liverpool. We have a match preview, predicted lineups, team and injury news, live odds, our score prediction and more for this GW7 matchup.

Match Details:

Fixture: Chelsea vs Liverpool

Stadium: Stamford Bridge

Date: Saturday 4th October

Kick-off: 5:30pm BST

Premier League Head-to-Head Record:

These two teams have played a lot of close and exciting games over recent years and have met in plenty of domestic cup finals also. Liverpool have not won at Stamford Bridge since September 2020 and will look to change that this weekend. Chelsea only have 2 wins in the league over Liverpool since 2019. Some recent games have been high scoring, others low scoring draws. It is always difficult to predict how these games might go from a scoreline perspective. Overall, Liverpool do have the better record overall in their last 5 league meetings, winning 2, with 2 draws and 1 Chelsea win. Last season each team won at their home ground, but the Chelsea win was a little unique because Liverpool were partying and celebrating winning the league abroad merely days earlier – it is difficult to take much from that matchup.

Chelsea Liverpool Last 5 Premier League Results

04/05/25 - Chelsea 3-1 Liverpool

20/10/24 - Liverpool 2-1 Chelsea

31/01/24 - Liverpool 4-1 Chelsea

13/08/23 - Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool

04/04/23 - Chelsea 0-0 Liverpool

Chelsea Overview and Form:

Chelsea have had a worse start to their Premier League season than any Chelsea fan, or likely anyone within the club thought possible after their Club World Cup victory. However, after 6 games, they find themselves 8th via goal difference, tied on points with 12th placed Leeds. They have only beaten West Ham and in controversial fashion Fuham, this season. They have lost to the worst Manchester United team we have ever witnessed and Brighton last weekend, and have drawn with Palace and Brentford. Not the results you need when you are looking to push on from a top 5 race to a title race and have had the easiest fixtures to start the season of any of the big 6. Maresca is now feeling the pressure.

From an attacking standpoint Chelsea have been solid. They are tied with Spurs for the 4th highest goal tally in the league with 11 scored through 6 games, but 5 of those were vs West Ham under Potter and he has now been sacked. 6 goals total in their other 5 games is not great going. They are 5th in xG on the season which does point to a good level of chance creation, but the issue is that without Palmer, Joao Pedro is now the only senior forward you really trust to bring a consistent level of performance. The question is will the underlying numbers continue, and the attack produce enough goals when the fixtures get more difficult?

Defensively Chelsea have struggled this season. They have kept 2 clean sheets against Palace on the opening weekend and against Fulham, but even that was somewhat fraudulent as Fulham and Josh King had a perfectly good goal disallowed. They have conceded 8 goals in 6 games which does not suggest there is much to worry about defensively, but that is having played none of last season’s top half teams except Brighton, who they conceded 3 to. They sit 11th in xG conceded which is again worrying given who they have faced, and they now face a Liverpool team looking to right wrongs down Colwill, Chalobah and Tosin. Not ideal.

Chelsea will look to exploit some of the out of possession weaknesses Liverpool have shown this season as they adapt to a new system, new principles and new players. They will look to do this on the counter as that is where Liverpool have struggled and that also allows Chelsea to protect their weak defence with bodies and to defend in a mid to low block. If they can compete in the duels and be physical with Liverpool, and not allow them to establish control and build consistent attacks, Chelsea can absolutely take something, or maybe even all 3 points from this game.

Liverpool Overview and Form:

Liverpool have had a good start to their season from a results perspective, although they are yet to have a full 90 minutes where they dominate the game. They currently sit 2 points ahead of Arsenal at the top of the table, with both teams having played difficult fixtures through 6 games. The Reds won their first 5 games of the season, but then faltered away at Selhurst Park last weekend conceding 2 sloppy goals and losing their first game of the season, despite a dominant second half performance where they should have scored 3 or 4 goals themselves. While the loss was a setback, it will likely just serve as a needed wake up call for Slot and his star studded squad, and they will look to get back to winning ways against a weakened Chelsea team this weekend.

From an attacking perspective, Liverpool are still scoring plenty of goals and creating high quality chances, but the attack does feel a little disjointed still with new faces and some new roles. Salah needs to be more involved in games and hugging the touchline less – that is something for Slot to resolve. Despite Wirtz’s adjustment being slow and Isak basically going through a late pre season in recent weeks, and Ekitike being suspended last game, Liverpool are still the only team to have scored in every game this season. They are tied with Arsenal for the 2nd most goals in the league with 12, only behind Manchester City who have had easier fixtures. I expect things to click soon, as the chemistry and trust grows, as Isak’s reaches full match fitness, Slot gets Salah involved more and Wirtz continues to adapt and grow in confidence. This game against a weakened Chelsea defence could be the week Liverpool’s attack really announces itself as the scariest in the league.

Defensively Liverpool have had moments of not being good enough, despite the overall numbers looking very solid. They are essentially tied for 4th least xG conceded so far. Van Dijk is still the best defender in the world. Kerkez has settled down week upon week. Konate has had some good games, and others where he looks like his mind is in Madrid. But against Palace they did not defend counter attacks well for 35 minutes, which is something they struggled with against Bournemouth also. But in the second half they essentially nullified Palace’s threat which is a good sign. They also held Arsenal, Newcastle and Everton’s attacks mostly in check, but there are small moments in games where tactically things are not quite right or players are making poor decisions, and they have also struggled defending set pieces. I expect these things will be ironed out as we play more games and Liverpool play more bottom half teams, but definitely something Chelsea could exploit, and Liverpool will look to sure up the chink in the armour and keep a clean sheet against the Blues.

Slot will look for his team to start much stronger in this game. He will look for them to be better in duels and faster to second balls, and for that to then allow them to control possession, establish territory and hopefully get the ball in to the forwards early and as much as possible, like they did in the second half against Palace. They will look to squeeze Chelsea and create so many chances and half chances against a weak defence, and to punish them and then play a more controlled second half. The key defensively will be limiting Chelsea’s space and threat in transition – if they can do that, Liverpool should come away with the win in this one.

Match Betting Odds:

Chelsea: 2/1

Draw: 13/5

Liverpool: 11/10 (Favourite bet)

Both Teams to Score Odds: 

Yes: 52/100

No: 6/4

Player to Score Odds:

Alexander Isak: 13/10 

Mohamed Salah: 6/4

Betrino is currently offering over 5% better value on Both Teams to Score compared with the average market line at most major sports books!

 

Lineups will be updated throughout the week in live time as and when injury and lineup news is announced.

To head back to our main predicted lineups hub, click here.

Chelsea Predicted Lineup:

Chelsea Team News:

Robert Sanches returns from his 1 match suspension. Maresca has always favoured him and he has had some decent stretches as Chelsea GK, especially during the Club World Cup, so I think he keeps his job for now, especially as Chelsea conceded 3 with Jorgensen in goal last weekend.

Speaking on Cole Palmer’s injury on Friday, Maresca informed the media that “Yes, we decided to protect a little bit Cole (by taking him off early at Man Utd) in terms of not letting his injury get worse. We decided to rest him for two-three weeks until the international break to see if with that rest he can recover 100% and to be fit after the international break”.

Chelsea will be without Palmer for the next 2 league games at least. Now that Buonanotte is available after being loan locked vs Brighton, he may start in the 10 and Enzo into his usual deeper role alongside Caicedo. The alternative would be Enzo in the 10 with Santos or James playing alongside Caicedo in midfield.

Chalobah is now suspended for 1 match after picking up a red card vs Brighton. Maresca revealed surprising news last Friday that “Tosin is injured. He will probably be out until the international break, he has a small problem in his calf. Wes Fofana had concussion against Lincoln. The rest are okay”. Chelsea will be without 2 of their 3 best centre-backs.

Fofana picked up a concussion in the EFL Cup last week and missed the Brighton game but may be cleared to return to face Liverpool. He and Hato will be the centre-back pairing if Fofana is fit. If not, Acheampong will start alongside Hato.

Lavia has returned to team training but is not fit enough to play or start yet. Maresca revealed “He is not back yet. He took part in the session yesterday which is good news, but we wait for him”, so it sounds like it might be a few more weeks until we see Lavia starting games.

Delap has around 8-10 weeks of his injury recovery left.

Chelsea Players to Watch:

Sanchez: Returns from suspension.

Palmer: Out for 2-3 weeks at minimum. Likely won’t see him until after the October international break.

Chalobah: Suspended for 1 match. Will be available again in GW8 vs Forest.

Fofana: Could return from concussion protocol to face Liverpool this weekend.

Hato: Will start at centre-back.

Buonanotte: Could start in the 10 role with Palmer out injured.

Tosin: Out until after the international break.

Liverpool Predicted Lineup:

Liverpool Team News:

Ekitike was substituted off in the second half against Galatasaray in the Champions League Tuesday, with what looked like it could be a muscle injury, but the Athletic reported the Ekitike himself felt it was only cramp. Slot speaking on the matter said “Hugo Ekitike going off, hopefully not in a bad way”, so there is some hope Ekitike will be fit for Chelsea on Saturday. However, with this injury concern, and the fact Gakpo is a more natural LW, he is in line to start now. Ekitike is available to start as he has served his 1 match suspension due to the red card he picked up against Southampton in the EFL Cup.

Alisson picked up an injury against Galatasaray and Slot has confirmed he is out for at least the game against Chelsea. Slot revealed “Alisson going off. That’s why we do need to rotate a bit….It’s never positive if you go off like this. You can be sure that he’s (Alisson) not playing on Saturday, so let’s wait how long it is going to take. But he is definitely not going to play on Saturday”, so Mamardashvili will start.

Isak started and played 84 minutes vs Crystal Palace. He then played 30 minutes against Galatsaray. He will start against Chelsea.

Young Italian centre-back signed from Parma, Giovanni Leoni, who had a promising debut against Southampton in the EFL Cup, has sadly torn his ACL in that game. He will be out for the rest of the season.

I expect Slot to play Szoboszlai at right-back, which allows him to play the midfield 3 of Gravenberch, Mac Allister and Wirtz. Szoboszlai has been excellent at right-back and provides Liverpool ball progression and long range passing that will help create even more attacking chances. Bradley is a good player but has had tough games against Everton and Palace.

Wirtz will start despite a slow start. This is a long term signing for Slot and Liverpool, they will not care what social media is saying 7 games into his Liverpool career. He will be given the time to adjust to his new role, his new teammates, a new country and league, and shown the same kind of faith in that was shown in Robertson, Fabinho, Henderson, Gravenberch and Gakpo among others during this recent Liverpool era.

Liverpool Players to Watch:

Alisson: Out for at least the Chelsea game.

Mamardashvili: Will start against Chelsea and any further games Alisson misses.

Ekitike: The hope is the injury was just cramp and could be fit for Saturday. Available again after his suspension.

Szoboszlai: Will start at right-back, allowing Slot to get him, Mac Allister, Gravenberch and Wirtz in the team.

Wirtz: Has struggled but Slot and Liverpool are not reactionary. He will start.

Ekitike: I expect he or Gakpo will start LW. Who starts in the Champions League on Tuesday will be key.

Isak: Will start.

Bradley: Could start, has played well in some games, worse in others but getting the 4 midfielders in the team means he drops to the bench.

Chelsea vs Liverpool Preview & Predicted Score:

Liverpool will set up in their usual 4-2-3-1 system as they always do under Slot. Maresca and Chelsea will also likely set up in the 4-2-3-1 he tends to play, although at the minute Maresca’s decision making is hard to predict or justify.

Slot will look to have his team win the physical battles, duels, second balls, aerial duels, to take that potential advantage away from Chelsea, leaving them with less ways as the less talented team to hurt Liverpool. This will also allow Liverpool to get on the ball, control possession and tempo, push Chelsea back into their own half and start to create chances. With all of the firepower they have, if Liverpool can do that, they will score goals in this one against a weakened Chelsea defence.

Chelsea will look to defend compactly as a team and then really hurt Liverpool in transition with the likes of Joao Pedro, Neto, Estevao and Enzo. Without Palmer and missing 3 first team centre-backs, I don’t think Maresca will try to have his team look to play with the ball and push bodies forward and press high – Liverpool will destroy them on the counter if they do that. Chelsea will look to keep this one close going in to the last 20 minutes.

I can see Chelsea causing a few issues on the counter and a few chances that give Liverpool a scare, and even nicking a goal, but overall I think Liverpool will have too much. I think this will be a motivated and focused Liverpool team looking to get back on track immediately, who will look to show the league they are not easy to get at in transition, and who will also look to unleash their attack and show how scary it can be by punishing an inexperienced and weak Chelsea CB pairing. I see multiple goals for Liverpool in this one and them getting their first win at Stamford Bridge since 2020 under Klopp.

Score Prediction: Chelsea 1-3 Liverpool