Noelle Matthews
- Liverpool v Chelsea
- Saturday, January 21st, 2023, 07:30 ET
- At Anfield, Liverpool
Liverpool has had a nightmare of a season so far but Jurgen Klopp’s team can end its poor run of form when it takes take on struggling Chelsea on Saturday.
Who do Bettors Favor?
Checking out the best-rated online sportsbooks we can see that bookmakers have not been deterred by Liverpool’s poor form and are rating the Reds as the strong favorites to win this game at odds of -120. The draw is available at between +275 and +290 with Chelsea the underdogs at +310.
| Liverpool v Chelsea |  |  |  |
| Liverpool | -114 | -121 | -115 |
| Draw | +288 | +290 | +275 |
| Chelsea | +310 | +310 | +305 |
Liverpool Hoping to Salvage Disastrous Campaign
Liverpool has been the main challenger to Manchester City’s Premier League dominance in recent years but this season has seen a dramatic decline in the Reds’ fortunes and time is running out for Jurgen Klopp’s team to salvage a disastrous campaign.
With 18 games of the season gone, Liverpool is 19 points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal and is 10 points off the top four and a ticket to next season’s Champions League.
Diagnosing the problem has been an ongoing obsession for Liverpool fans and Premier League analysts, but the factors in Liverpool’s decline include the departure of Sadio Mane, a string of injuries to other forwards and an alarming loss of form on the part of key defenders and midfielders.
Two wins from its first eight games, including defeats to Manchester United and Arsenal, set the tone for Liverpool’s season and more defeats have followed including back to back away losses at Brighton and Brentford. A top four spot is just about possible, but the revival has to begin soon or Liverpool could be heading for one of its worst ever seasons.
No Sign of a Chelsea Revival
Surprisingly, Liverpool’s poor season is not the worst performance by a ‘top six’ team in the 2022/23 campaign. Having dispensed with Thomas Tuchel’s services six games into the season, new Chelsea owner Todd Boehly seems to be on a one-man mission to dismantle the trophy winning machine created by Roman Abramovic. Whereas the former Chelsea owner had managed to deliver consistent success despite a high turnover of managers, every intervention that Boehly has made, from trying to sign Cristiano Ronaldo to sacking Champions League winner Tuchel, has been a disaster.
Amongst the rubble of Chelsea’s season, manager Graham Potter has been doing his best to create success, but the squad he has been given is unbalanced and in some cases, disinterested. The result is that Chelsea is tenth in the table, on the same points as Liverpool but having played a game more.
Victory over Crystal Palace last time out was welcomed by the Chelsea fans, but Palace have also been out of form, and beating Patrick Vieira’s team by a single goal at Stamford Bridge does not indicate an immediate revival. Potter is a talented coach who deserves more time. Whether he will be given that time remains to be seen, but the clock is ticking.
Premier League Betting Head-to-Head
Liverpool versus Chelsea is one of the newer English football rivalries, although it has a history that goes back to 1907, when the two teams first met in the old First Division. Chelsea won that game, and although Liverpool has the better record in the head-to-head statistics, it has not been able to dominate.
The longest spell of sustained success for either team came between 1985 and 1990, when a dominant Liverpool team went eleven games without defeat against the Blues.
The rivalry between the two teams became stronger in the Abramovich era when Chelsea was regularly challenging for the Premier League title. Between 2004 and 2009, Liverpool and Chelsea, led by Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez respectively, played one another 24 times and that era led to an abiding animosity between the two clubs.
This will be the first meeting between the two clubs since the FA Cup Final last May, when Liverpool won on penalties after the game finished 0-0.
Premier League Betting Team News
There is at least some good team news for Jurgen Klopp ahead of this game. Although Roberto Firmino, Virgil van Dijk, Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz are all still missing, Darwin Nunez is expected to be available here, after Klopp opted not to risk him in the FA Cup game against Wolves.
Chelsea’s injury list is extensive and includes Raheem Sterling, Denis Zakaria, Edouard Mendy, Armando Broja, Wesley Fofana, N’Golo Kante, Ben Chilwell, Reece James and Christian Pulisic. Loan signing Joao Felix will also be absent as he serves the second game of his three game suspension.
Premier League Match Betting Pick
If it were possible for both teams to lose a game, you suspect that Liverpool and Chelsea would find a way to accomplish it. Betting on either team this season has been a shortcut to losing money, and both remain in deep trouble, way off the pace in the Premier League.
Still, Liverpool’s situation does not seem quite as dire as Chelsea’s, and its form at Anfield has generally been better than on the road. Given Chelsea’s horrendous injury list, the Reds should be able to edge what is likely to be a high scoring, scrappy game.
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