Table-topping Liverpool welcome Chelsea to Anfield for the marquee showdown of the Premier League’s eighth round of fixtures in a match that represents the first domestic acid-test for the Reds’ rebrand as methodical, probing possession-hogs under Dutch boss Arne Slot.
Slot’s most notable EPL scalps to date are seventh-placed Newcastle, Brentford, who sit eleventh and flailing Manchester United, currently 14th. Chelsea are in fourth spot and represent a significant step up in terms of both current form and recent stature.
Liverpool vs Chelsea predictions
Liverpool vs Chelsea – draw @ 16/5
Over 1.5 Chelsea goals @ 29/20
Cole Palmer to score @ 2/1
Bet on the latest Premier League odds at Betzone
Liverpool too short given possession obsession suits Blues
Arne Slot’s arrival at Anfield has seen Liverpool morph into a more methodical, patient possession-hogging side, but it’s a style that should play directly into Chelsea’s hands, giving them a good chance of taking something from the game.
Enzo Maresca’s side have claimed two of their more impressive recent wins 3-0 away at West Ham and 4-2 at home to Brighton despite claiming 47% and 41% of possession respectively.
Against hosts that average 63.1% at home this season, the game should be set up perfectly for them to replicate the counter attacking incisiveness that underpinned those successes.
The Reds are 4/6 match betting favourites, but that feels short enough against visitors that have avoided defeat in seven of their 11 matches against last season’s top five since the beginning of the 2023/24 campaign.
Five of those seven occasions in which they avoided defeat saw the spoils shared and 16/5 seems more than fair recompense for Chelsea to claim another point at Anfield.
Tip: Liverpool vs Chelsea – draw @ 16/5
Chelsea have quality to be first to double up on Slot’s Reds
Liverpool’s league leading form has owed plenty to having conceded just two goals in their first seven games – no other side in the division have shipped less than six. However, as alluded to above, that statistic has to be taken with a pinch of salt given the quality and form of their foes.
The xG against sits at 6.75 (as per Opta) and while that’s the lowest in the EPL, it suggests their defence isn’t as far clear of the others as the goals against column suggests, despite having played just one side in the current top 10 and none higher than the Magpies.
Chelsea are an elite attacking threat as far as the English top-flight is concerned. Only Man City (17) can better their 16 goals so far, while their xG (15.59), is just behind Arsenal (15.89) and Liverpool (15.69) – despite them taking 18 and 11 less shots than those rivals respectively.
Enzo Maresca’s men have bagged at least three times in four of their past five games across all competitions and possess one of the Premier League’s most unstoppable attackers in Cole Palmer – over 1.5 goals looks backable at 29/10 as result.
Tip: Over 1.5 Chelsea goals @ 29/20
‘Goal King Cole’ fine value to bag
Quite simply, Cole Palmer has been the Premier League’s most important attacking player this season having been directly involved in 11 Chelsea goals – scoring seven and assisting six.
That’s one more such involvement that Erling Haaland and although the Norwegian has scored 10 to Palmer’s six, backing the former City man to net at 2/1 is preferred to the X/X to set up one of his teammates.
After all, the Wythenshawe native has still bagged at a rate of a goal a game this season and is his team’s first-choice penalty and free-kick taker.
