The Jürgen Klopp farewell tour is in full swing; will his side maintain their momentum at the Premier League summit? We look ahead to Wednesday’s game with our Liverpool vs Chelsea prediction and preview.
Liverpool vs Chelsea Stats: The Quick Hits
- Ahead of Liverpool’s first Premier League game since the news of Jürgen Klopp’s impending departure was announced, the Reds are given a 54.9% chance of beating Chelsea (19.5%).
- Klopp has won 199 of his 317 Premier League games in charge of Liverpool. Victory in his 318th match in the competition would make him the second-fastest manager to 200 Premier League wins, after Pep Guardiola (269 games).
- Chelsea have won 18 Premier League games against teams starting the day top of the table, more than any other side in the competition’s history. However, they are winless in their last four such games against Liverpool (one draw, three defeats).
Match Preview
Sunday was an emotional day as Liverpool played their first game since it was announced that Jürgen Klopp will leave the club at the end of the season, with the German receiving a tremendous reception at Anfield before his side overcame Norwich City 5-2 in the FA Cup fourth round. Klopp has called for Liverpool to “squeeze everything” out of his final months at the helm, and Wednesday’s clash with Chelsea represents a chance for the Reds to maintain their momentum at the Premier League summit.
Klopp’s current win rate of 60.8% is the highest of any Liverpool manager to have overseen 100 or more games, while he is the only Reds boss to win the top flight, European Cup/UEFA Champions League, FA Cup and League Cup. However, the German will be desperate to cap his reign with a second league title, and Liverpool enter Matchday 22 five points clear of second-placed Manchester City, albeit having played a game more.
As well as advancing to the EFL Cup final and the fifth round of the FA Cup, Liverpool are into the UEFA Europa League last 16 and have won their last three Premier League games, beating Newcastle United 4-2 and Bournemouth 4-0 in their last two. They last won three successive league matches while netting four or more goals in each between November and December 2021.
Darwin Núñez and Diogo Jota scored twice each against Bournemouth in their last league game and also found the net once apiece against Norwich. With Mohamed Salah still sidelined by the muscle injury he suffered at the Africa Cup of Nations, both could have key roles to play again here.
With seven goals and six assists, Núñez already has more goal involvements in 20 Premier League appearances this season than he managed in 29 last term (nine goals, three assists). He has four winning goals in the competition this campaign, a tally only matched by Chelsea’s Cole Palmer.
Jota now has 38 goals in 91 Premier League appearances for Liverpool, hitting the net once every 141 minutes on average for the Reds. Since Opta began collecting Premier League shot data in 2003-04, only Divock Origi (20.8%) boasts a higher shot conversation rate for Liverpool than Jota (19.3%).
Liverpool received a treble boost on Sunday as Dominik Szoboszlai, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Andy Robertson returned after spells on the sidelines, all appearing from the bench. Klopp is also confident of having midfielder Alexis Mac Allister available after he missed the Norwich win with a slight knock, though the outgoing Liverpool boss remains without Thiago Alcântara, Kostas Tsimikas and Stefan Bajcetic, while Wataru Endo is still at the AFC Asian Cup with Japan.
While Liverpool have done a good job of leading from the front lately, Klopp’s side have shown incredible fight in the face of adversity this season, winning 19 points from losing positions – more than any other Premier League team and a tally they have only bettered in three previous campaigns (22 in 2008-09, 20 in 1993-94 and 20 in 2021-22). Meanwhile, only Aston Villa (three) have dropped fewer points from winning positions than Chelsea in 2023-24 (four, level with Liverpool).
Mauricio Pochettino’s men will also face Liverpool in the EFL Cup final next month after overcoming Middlesbrough in last week’s semi-finals. They followed up a resounding 6-1 win over Michael Carrick’s side by being held to a goalless draw by Aston Villa in the FA Cup on Friday.
In the Premier League, Chelsea finally seem to have discovered some consistency, winning their last three games – as many wins as they managed in their previous 10 (two draws, five defeats). Another victory at Anfield would make Pochettino the first Blues boss to win four straight league games since Thomas Tuchel led them to five victories in a row between January and March 2022.
Chelsea overcame neighbours Fulham in their last league game, with Palmer converting a first-half penalty after Raheem Sterling was brought down by Issa Diop. Palmer has scored all five of his Premier League penalties for Chelsea, with only Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink (12/12) boasting a better 100% record in the competition for the Blues.
Since Palmer scored his first Premier League goal against Burnley in October, only Salah (11) has more goals in the competition than the former Man City man (nine).
As for Chelsea’s team news ahead of kick-off, Palmer could be joined by Christopher Nkunku in the visitors’ attack, with the Frenchman back in training after battling a groin injury. Goalkeeper Robert Sánchez, right-back Malo Gusto and midfielder Roméo Lavia are also closing in on returns, but they remain without Reece James, Wesley Fofana and Marc Cucurella, while Nicolas Jackson is still away at the Africa Cup of Nations.
Liverpool vs Chelsea Head-to-Head
Nobody should be particularly surprised if these two are tough to separate in this Premier League clash on Wednesday, with each of the last seven meetings between them in all competitions finishing level.
It is the longest run of consecutive draws between two top-flight clubs in English football history, and four of the last five have finished goalless (including penalty shootout wins for Liverpool in the 2022 EFL and FA Cup finals). Neutrals will be hoping for more goalmouth action this time around.
We did get a goal at each end when the teams met on Matchday 1 at Stamford Bridge, with Chelsea debutant Axel Disasi cancelling out Luis Díaz’s opener.
While Liverpool have only lost one of their last 11 Premier League games against Chelsea (four wins, six draws), they are also winless in their last six versus the Blues (five draws, one defeat). Anfield victories have been a rare occurrence for Chelsea, though, with the Blues only winning two of their last 11 Premier League away games against Liverpool (six draws, three losses) – those triumphs came on successive visits in April 2019 and July 2020.
Recent Form
Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 22 Premier League games at Anfield since suffering a 2-1 defeat against Leeds United in October 2022. Only Aston Villa (28) have bettered their return of 26 top-flight points won on home soil in 2023-24.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have lost half of their 10 away league games under Pochettino, with four of those defeats coming in their last five games (against Newcastle, Manchester United, Everton and Wolves).
Chelsea do tend to fare well against the Premier League’s best, winning more games against teams starting the day top of the table than any other club in the competition’s history (18). However, they are winless in their last four such games against Liverpool (one draw, three defeats) since beating them 2-0 at Anfield under José Mourinho in April 2014, a game that featured Steven Gerrard’s infamous slip and handed Man City the initiative in the title race.
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Wednesday, here are the Opta Power Rankings for both sides:
Liverpool vs Chelsea Prediction
The Opta supercomputer is forecasting an end to the run of stalemates between these sides, with a Liverpool win occurring in 54.9% of pre-match simulations.
Chelsea extend their winning run to four league games in just 19.5% of scenarios, while 25.6% of the supercomputer’s simulations see the points shared.
Liverpool’s strong run of form over the winter has seen their title hopes boosted to 37.2% in the supercomputer’s season predictions, putting them comfortably clear of Arsenal (3%) and Villa (1.1%) but still making them second favourites behind City (58.6%). Chelsea, meanwhile, are assigned a 22.1% chance of a top-seven finish, which would likely bring European qualification. However, 10th (17.8%) is still seen as their most likely final position.
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