Chelsea vs Liverpool

The weekend’s marquee Premier League tie will take place on Sunday at 4:30 pm UK time.

Said clash will see Chelsea play host to Liverpool in a meeting that could have huge ramifications on this season’s title race.

Ahead of the weekend’s action, it has become clear that a three-horse title race has emerged between Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool.

However, Man City are winning that mini-group by some distance, with Chelsea eight points adrift and Liverpool nine points off – though the Reds do have a game in hand on both.

So, if Chelsea go on to lose their clash this weekend and Manchester City beat Arsenal, they would find themselves 11 points behind Pep Guardiola’s men with less than half the campaign to play out.

Given how impressive City have been of late, one would assume that Thomas Tuchel’s side would not be able to make up that ground – effectively ruling them out of the title race.

Therefore, a win against Liverpool is of huge importance, even if it means Chelsea simply maintain their current eight-point deficit.

Chelsea told how to stop Salah

Unfortunately for Chelsea, this game will be the final one Liverpool have Sadio Mane, Naby Keita and Mohamed Salah available before they jet off to the AFCON.

Of that trio, Mohamed Salah is, of course, by far and away Liverpool’s biggest threat, having netted 22 and assisted nine in 25 ties so far this term.

So, Chelsea will obviously be heavily focused on trying to neutralise the Egyptian.

And now, former defender Glen Johnson has told Chelsea how to do this, urging Chelsea to have possession and dominate the game as, if Liverpool do not have the ball, Salah cannot do anything:

“Yeah, of course, they’re going to know all about Liverpool’s threats but they’ve got a lot of attacking threats themselves. I’m sure they will focus on their game and if they keep the ball and have possession and dominate the game then Mo can’t do anything. I’m sure they’ll be more worried about their performance than worried about Liverpool.

“I think for Chelsea, it’s about their defensive strength against Liverpool’s attack. If you can keep Liverpool’s front three quiet, we know they struggle to score. It will be about keeping Mo, Mane, and Jota if he plays, quiet. Then the game could play into Chelsea’s hands.”

Quotes via football.london.

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