BOTH Liverpool and Chelsea went into this season accompanied by all manner of unknowns.
Regarding the Reds, the biggest doubts that rendered them unpredictable derived from a parting of the ways, with Jurgen Klopp leaving L4 after nine highly eventful years that saw his team crowned champions of England and Europe.
We have all previously watched on agog as a successful entity imploded into crisis and calamity following a seismic departure, it happening at Old Trafford a decade ago, and though nobody was expecting that to happen here surely new gaffer Arne Slot would need time to remould a specialist taskforce into his own image. Did a transitional period await at Anfield?
As for Chelsea, yet another managerial change ensured that constant flux remained the norm at the Bridge, and though Enzo Maresca arrived with fine credentials the same could be said of his underachieving predecessors. Todd Boehly and co meanwhile continued to purchase talent so compulsively the squad was bloating to the scale of a small nation.
Subsequently, tipping the Blues for a top four spot, or to finish bottom six, had equal merit back in August while Liverpool were set to be excused of any title challenging for a year at least.
Seven games in, and is it too early to dispense with these doubts, declaring both teams to be outstanding success stories in the making? Certainly on the evidence so far we can conclude that the changes made at each club have only made them stronger.
Chelsea may well have a ridiculously expanded squad but that’s proven to be an irrelevance, with Maresca banishing half of them to another part of Cobham. Twelve other top-flight clubs – including Liverpool – have deployed more players this term.
And from his trusted nucleus, pivotal partnerships have emerged not least an unerring understanding between Cole Palmer and Noni Madueke that has produced so many of Chelsea’s best moments to date. At the back, Wesley Fofana and Levi Colwill have been solid and entirely in tandem.
Moreover, with Maresca’s mandate being quickly assimilated, Chelsea have been imposing almost from the off, unbeaten since their opening day loss to Manchester City.
They are the second highest goal-scorers in the division, aided considerably by having the second best chance conversion rate (12.5%), and this in part brings us to Nicolas Jackson, one of several stars revitalized under the Italian.
Last season, the Senegalese striker squandered a high number of gilt-edged chances but seven goal involvements in seven is testament to his new-found reliability. Jackson has the fifth best shot accuracy of any player who has scored three or more league goals and he is increasingly looking like the targetman Chelsea have long cried out for.
Elsewhere, Palmer is an obvious threat at Anfield but it’s worth noting that 17 of his last 20 league strikes have come at Stamford Bridge. In build-up, however, he will be Ryan Gravenberch’s toughest test yet, the England star averaging 3.3 key passes per 90.
Jadon Sancho has also impressed, with 4.1 successful dribbles per game but on this occasion Christopher Nkunku is fancied to get a rare league start, courtesy of his excellent high pressing. The versatile attacker has gained possession in the final third 2.1 times per 90 this season and it’s pertinent that Chelsea trail only to Spurs for goals scored from counters in 2024/25.
All told, the Blues travel north in superb shape but a concern does lie in Fofana and Marc Cucurella both being suspended. The latter’s absence in particular could be telling with Mo Salah routinely running amok down that flank.
Typically, Salah would be held up as a probable headline-maker but he has a poor scoring record against his former club, and besides there is so much more to this current Liverpool incarnation than their explosive winger.
In a similar vein to Jackson, Luis Diaz is shedding a reputation for wastefulness, converting 38.5% of the Reds’ league haul so far. He is one of only three players to score a trio of match-winners to this early juncture.
Diogo Jota meanwhile is thriving in a central role, making 22 targeted runs into the box – so nearly a league-high – and extending on a decent finish to last season. The Portuguese forward has 11 goal involvements in his last 12 starts.
As for the suspicion that a campaign of reconfiguration awaited at Anfield, such thoughts have fast disappeared with Liverpool topping the table in some style.
Under Slot, their set-up and approach has been surprisingly similar to Klopp-ball – with inverted wingers, Trent Alexander-Arnold stepping into midfield, and fierce intensity shown out of position – only now there is greater emphasis on control, with care taken in each and every pass.
They can still cut you dead with a swashbuckling attack but only Manchester City have completed more sequences of 10+ passes.
And boy is this significant tweak working, even if it does make them more Doves than ACDC. Slot’s men have kept clean sheets in 71% of their fixtures. They’ve also scored 2+ goals in 71% of their fixtures.
So from these two in-form creations who is expected to win out at the weekend? Is it relevant that Chelsea have won all three of their away games to this point? Is there anything in the notion that Liverpool have had a fairly easy run to now?
Regrettably, past encounters suggest we could see all of this promise on display cancel itself out, this traditionally being a low-scoring meeting. Only two of the last 10 clashes have produced over two goals and within that period there were four consecutive goalless draws.
Intriguingly though 12 of the last 15 goals have come before the break.
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