Could Jurgen Klopp be lifting his final trophy as Reds manager after the Carabao Cup final?
Earlier in the season, Liverpool winning this fixture would be close to a foregone conclusion - but Chelsea have players who can win trophies.
Chelsea have started their EPL season strongly with a 3-0 win over Aaron Mooy’s Huddersfield Town.
Final score
Huddersfield Town 0
Chelsea 3
After a sub-standard pre-season, Chelsea will have their first competitive match under new manager Maurizio Sarri when they travel to play Aaron Mooy’s Huddersfield on opening weekend of the EPL season. Join The Roar for live scores from 12am – midnight (AEST).
Chelsea will be a little disappointed with what they played during the pre-season, losing the FA Community Shield 2-0 to Manchester City and needing penalties to beat both Inter Milan and Lyon at the International Champions Cup.
While only so much can be taken from pre-season, Maurizio Sarri has a lot of work to do to get his team up to par.
Their 2017-18 Premier League season was a disappointing one to say the least. Chelsea finished fifth at the end of it, missing out on automatic qualification for the Champions League group stage this year.
Instead, they go into the Europa League and they must improve on that performance this year, given the clubs expectations in the long run.
A refreshed look will help, and with talented names like Eden Hazard, Olivier Giroud, Willian Cesc Fabregas and N’Golo Kante playing up front and through the midfield, there are absolutely no excuses in getting the job done.
The hosts for this game will be without Danny Williams and Erik Durm for the season opener, but will still put a strong side across the pitch to battle Chelsea.
They had an up and down season 12 months ago, but ultimately, there was far too much down as the side finished 16th, narrowly avoiding relegation in the final weeks of the season.
While they do have plenty of talented players including Aaron Mooy, they struggled to hang with most Premier League sides last year.
Where they did excel last year was in defence. They recorded one of the best tackle rates among the league and it kept them in games when otherwise they would have beaten. With no key personnel losses during the off-season, they will be aiming for more of the same.
What is somewhat interesting is the record between the two sides. It’s been roughly even throughout history with Huddersfield even managing to snatch a mid-week draw between the sides last year.
Prediction
While Huddersfield are unpredictable and have home ground advantage to start the season, they are going to struggle to get the better of Chelsea.
Chelsea 2 – Huddersfield 1.
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