The factors working for and against Chelsea and Liverpool as cup final build-up begins – Talk Chelsea

Chelsea play Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final this weekend, and while there’s a long time to wait, we’re already getting excited.

Whether you’re going to have a wager with your friend who supports the Reds, or whether you want to find the best sites to place bets in Zambia, you’ll want to know what’s going to happen in the game, so here we present an early preview on some of the positive and negative factors affecting both teams as we build up to the game.

Liverpool’s positives are very obvious. They’re having a great season, they’re in great form, and they’re full of confidence. Apart from their blip away at the Emirates a couple of weeks ago they’re in fearsome form domestically, having lost just two league games all season thus far.

They also have the added motivation of knowing it’s Jurgen Klopp’s last season at the club. They will all be playing at 110% for their coach and the chance to win him some silverware.

Plus, on top of all that, they’ve got the added confidence of having beaten us in two Wembley finals two years ago. That’s experience that our squad desperately lacks.

All in all, a big task for us. But it’s not all rosy. Firstly, they have a game tomorrow night, meaning we should be vastly fresher and more prepared than them.

Secondly, they’re hit pretty severely by injuries at the moment. It’s not quite clear who will actually be fit this weekend, but it looks almost certain that at least Trent Alexander-Arnold, Diogo Jota, Alisson, Joel Matip and Curtis Jones will miss out.

That’s the heart of their team right there, and that combined with the game against Luton tomorrow night gives us a huge chance.

Chelsea’s negatives are obvious – we’ve been dreadful at times this season, including in the game two weeks ago where the Reds walked all over us. We’ve also been unable to play well consistently, so the fact we’ve had three positive results in a row doesn’t count for much.

But even ignoring all that, there’s a definite sense that we play our best football when we’re against teams who will come out and attack us, and given we should be fresher and less injured than our opposition, the tactic surely has to be to attack them all out from the start and see if we can get a lead to hold on to.