Liverpool vs. Chelsea Prediction: Two EPL Giants Prepare to Butt Heads

• Liverpool are the Premier League leaders after seven rounds of fixtures

• Chelsea drew last time out but they have been playing well of late

• This is a test for new managers Arne Slot and Enzo Maresca

Liverpool vs. Chelsea Odds

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Liverpool vs. Chelsea Pick

Back Liverpool to win and over 2.5 goals. The Reds should come out on top at Anfield and goals are probable.

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Liverpool Looking to Continue Fantastic Start to Season

Stepping into Jurgen Klopp’s shoes at Anfield looked like being a very difficult job. During his nine years at the helm, Klopp won multiple trophies with Liverpool. He also forged a unique connection between the fans and the team and was adored throughout the red half of the city. 

Yet despite the pressure and scrutiny, Arne Slot has had the smoothest of starts to life in England. The former Feyenoord manager has won nine of his 10 games in all competitions, including two victories in the Champions League and six in the Premier League. The latest of those was a 1-0 defeat of Crystal Palace immediately prior to the October international break.

Liverpool were not at their absolute best at Selhurst Park. They scored early through Diogo Jota and dominated the first half of the encounter, but Palace created several chances after the break and could easily have equalised. Once again, though, Liverpool did enough to emerge triumphant.

The only team to have gotten the better of the Reds so far are Nottingham Forest, who did a number on them at Anfield in a 1-0 victory. Slot has not come in and ripped up the principles laid down by Klopp in a bid to assert control. Instead, he has built on the foundations his predecessor put down while adding elements of his own style.

The most obvious tactical development is Liverpool’s increased desire to control games, rather than stretching the play out and creating end-to-end matches. The Reds do not rush when they have the ball, and they are not quite as intense out of possession. There have been other tactical tweaks too, most notably a shift towards a 4-2-3-1 formation.

Slot is not as big a personality as Klopp and he may never create the same bond between him and the fan base. But if Liverpool keep winning games, the Dutchman will have his own place in club folklore.

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Chelsea Set to Pit Their Wits Against One of League’s Best

Chelsea lost 2-0 to Manchester City on the opening weekend, at which point many of their supporters feared the worst. The replacement of Mauricio Pochettino with Enzo Maresca looked like a risk, while - not for the first time - the club’s summer recruitment was not completely convincing.

Since then, however, things have gone pretty well for Chelsea. Home draws with Crystal Palace and Nottingham Forest were frustrating, but the Blues have also beaten Wolves, Bournemouth, West Ham United and Brighton & Hove Albion. They head into the weekend in fourth place in the standings and would move to within a point of Liverpool with a win on Sunday.

Crucially, Maresca has very quickly settled on a favoured starting XI. That is not to say he has named an unchanged team in every recent match, but we can already identify his preferred options up front, in central midfield and in the heart of that backline. That helps immensely when you have a squad as large as Chelsea’s.

The underlying numbers look pretty decent too. Maresca’s men rank third for expected goals behind only Arsenal and Liverpool, while for expected goals against they are a respectable eighth. There is still work to do defensively, then, but Chelsea are doing better than was widely anticipated.

This will be the sternest examination of their credentials since gameweek one. But that need not be a bad thing, and Chelsea are still the underdogs according to the odds. A victory here would really make people sit up and take notice.

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Goals on the Cards With Liverpool Rightly the Favorites

The one thing you could say against Liverpool is that they have had a reasonably kind start to the season; their opponents so far have been Ipswich Town, Brentford, Manchester United, Nottingham Forest, Bournemouth, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Crystal Palace. None of those teams finished in the top seven last term.

Chelsea did, however, and that means this is probably Liverpool’s toughest test to date. The same applies to the Blues, though, with the exception of that meeting with Manchester City on the opening weekend. They too have had a decent run of games in recent weeks, helping Maresca to get some points on the board.

Chelsea have the chance to make a real statement of intent by beating Liverpool, but it is hard to overlook home advantage. On top of that, the Reds are further ahead in their development than Chelsea, perhaps helped by a quiet summer at Anfield compared to a chaotic one at Stamford Bridge.

We know that Maresca likes to see his team take the initiative, which is why there is reason to believe this will be an entertaining affair. Over 2.5 goals is a distinct possibility - we recommend combining that selection with a Liverpool victory in the standout fixture of the first Premier League weekend after the international break.

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How to Watch Liverpool vs. Chelsea

• Teams: Liverpool vs. Chelsea

• Location: Anfield, Liverpool, England

• Date and Time: Sunday, 20 October 2024, 11.30 AM ET

• How to Watch: USA Network