Chelsea v Liverpool Preview

Liverpool arrive at Stamford Bridge smarting from a midweek Champions League defeat. Chelsea will be keen to get the debacle of the defeat at Wigan out of their system. Which of the two English heavyweights will be smiling the most come Sunday evening?

Carlo Ancelotti and Rafa Benitez are no strangers to each other. Their paths have crossed on the Champions League Final stage and Ancelotti is acutely aware of the danger Liverpool present on Sunday afternoon.

In his pre-match press conference he emphasised the importance of the fixture whilst also pressing home the danger two Liverpool players in particular will present, when he remarked,

"For this big test we will need to put all of our courage and our personality on to the pitch."

"Fernando Torres is the best striker in the world along with Didier Drogba. Torres is a fantastic player, a complete striker who scores a lot of goals in many ways."

"To stop Torres and Gerrard, it`s important to work together, to read the game and control it. We have to be intelligent and work together to maintain our defensive lines and avoid easy passes to them."

Preferably, I`d prefer to see them kicked out of the game (only joking folks)!

Chelsea enter the fixture without the suspended Petr Cech, sent off at Wigan last weekend, and also without the injured John Obi Mikel and Alex. Also unlikely to feature is the recuperating Paulo Ferreira.

However, after missing the trip to Cyprus, through suspension, Didier Drogba and Jose Bosingwa should both return as will Michael Ballack who was left back at Cobham to continue to recover from his own injury niggle instead of enjoying some Cypriot sunshine.

Here at Vital Chelsea we suspect Carlo Ancelotti will go for a starting eleven along the following lines:

Hilario, Bosingwa, Terry, Carvalho, A.Cole, Essien, Lampard, Ballack, Malouda, Drogba and Anelka.

After his rest in midweek, courtesy of our friends at UEFA, Didier Drogba will be raring to go. The fixture eon Sunday gives the Ivorian the perfect opportunity to prove to those watching that he is far more of a complete striker than pretty boy Torres!

Rafa Bentiez brings his squad to SW6 with Javier Mascherano set to return after missing the trip to Fiorentina n midweek.

Daniel Agger has featured in a reserve game but is unlikely to play whilst recent signing Aquilani is unlikely to feature.

However, the familiar faces of Gerrad, Carragher, Reina, Kuyt and Torres will all be looking for a repeat of that fluked 1-0 win last season when a deflected shot, going in off Jose Bosingwa, ended our majestic home record.

A Spanish goal-scoring machine who is in tremendous form. Let`s hope that our defence can deny him any opportunities to add to his tally for the season.

It was a moment we all dreaded happening, if there was one team out there who we didn`t want to end that historic run of Premier League home games without defeat it was Liverpool. To compound matter Liverpool also beat us up at Anfield and for the first time in ages (almost twenty years) we never took a single league point of Liverpool in a season, although matters were addressed in two epic Champions League encounters last season.

For some strange reason, our paths seemed to have continually crossed in recent years. In the last five years we`ve played Liverpool a staggering 24 times. Out of those fixtures Chelsea have won 10 Liverpool have won 7 and a further 7 have been draws.

In charge will be Martin Atkinson!

After the loss to Wigan last Saturday, Chelsea, if they harbour serious intentions of wrestling the Premier League crown from Manchester United, cannot afford a second loss in a little more than a week Another loss would be viewed with disdain by those who know the pressure would increase dramatically on Carlo Ancelotti. Thankfully, Liverpool are having a mini-crisis of their own. After trouncing Hull last weekend, 6-1, they travelled to Italy and were made to look second rate by Fiorentina. So what do us hacks here at Vital Chelsea think the outcome of the match will be this Sunday? We`ll we`re going for a Chelsea win; it might be by the narrowest of margins but its blue joy for us.

With the squad set to dissipate around the globe for yet more international football, the Premier League is put on the back-burner until a fortnights` time when we play Aston Villa away!