A week on from trashing Tottenham 5-1 to clinch the Premier League title, Liverpool’s parade begins with a trip to Chelsea.
The newly-crowned champions may head to Stamford Bridge with something of a hangover, though Arne Slot’s team should still be confident of getting another win on the board in what has been a sensational top-flight campaign.
Dominic Solanke’s goal did not go according to the script at Anfield last week, but Liverpool swiftly set about dismantling Spurs and wrapping up a title that has long since been theirs.
Liverpool proved why they have been by far and away the best Premier League team this season with a clinical display of force.
Now they have another London club to take on.
This will be Chelsea’s seventh Premier League game against a side already crowned champions, the most of any side.
They have only won one of the previous six (D2 L3), beating Manchester United 1-0 in 2012-13, while one of their defeats was a 5-3 reverse against Liverpool in July 2020.
But Enzo Maresca’s team have got plenty to fight for, as they are embroiled in the tussle for Champions League qualification.
Here, we delve into the best Opta insights ahead of Sunday’s clash.
What’s expected?
At one stage earlier this season, Chelsea were fancied as potential title rivals to Liverpool, though their hopes were dashed due to a poor run around Christmas.
That came a couple of months after they had lost 2-1 at Anfield in the reverse fixture, with Mohamed Salah and Curtis Jones on target for the Reds, either side of a goal from Nicolas Jackson.
Liverpool are looking to complete their first league double over Chelsea since their title-winning 2019-20 campaign.
Slot could become only the third Reds boss to win both of his first two league games against Chelsea in charge of the club, after Bill Shankly and Roy Evans.
Chelsea are winless in their last 10 meetings with Liverpool in all competitions (D7 L3), only once before going longer without a win over the Reds (11 from 1985 to 1990).
The Opta supercomputer is actually backing the Blues in this one, though do expect it to be a tight contest, with the chance of a draw coming in at 24.8%.
Chelsea came out on top in 43.3% of the data-led simulations, while Liverpool won 31.9%.
What about Chelsea’s Champions League hopes? After Nottingham Forest’s defeat to Brentford on Thursday, the Blues have a 49.4% chance of finishing in the top five. Maresca will know a win on Sunday would do their prospects a world of good.
Coming good at the key time
Maresca has gone with youth this season, and perhaps that inexperience is what hampered the Blues earlier this campaign when the pressure of a potential title race told.
Chelsea have not used a single player over the age of 27 in a Premier League match this season, with this run of 34 games the longest by a side in Premier League history. The previous longest had been a run of only six by Liverpool in April/May 2000.
A run of just one win in seven games across December and January saw Chelsea fall well off Liverpool’s pace, but the Blues have been in excellent form as of late.
Chelsea have picked up 17 points in their last eight Premier League matches (W5 D2 L1), having collected just nine points from their previous 10 beforehand (W2 D3 L5).
They also have one foot into the final of the Conference League, after a 4-1 victory in the first leg of their semi-final tie with Djurgarden, with Noni Madueke, Jadon Sancho and Nicolas Jackson on target.
All in all, they seem to be turning it back on at the right time in what is a congested race for the top five places.
Jackson returned to scoring form with the winner against Everton last week and then netted a double against Djurgarden, while Enzo Fernandez is proving a creative force in midfield.
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— Chelsea FC (@ChelseaFC) May 1, 2025
Only three players have created more chances in the Premier League this season than Enzo Fernandez (73). The only Argentinians to create more in a season record (since 2003-04) are Emiliano Buendia in 2019-20 for Norwich (83) and Erik Lamela in 2015-16 for Spurs (75).
Cole Palmer, meanwhile, is always capable of the spectacular, even if he has failed to fire on all cylinders in the back half of the campaign.
Slot’s mean, lean, winning machine
However, the scale of the task faced by Chelsea cannot be underestimated.
Liverpool have not lost any of their last 20 Premier League matches in the month of May (W16 D4), though their last defeat was at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea in 2018.
The Reds have averaged 2.41 points per game in the league this season. In only three of his eight full seasons in charge did Slot’s predecessor Jurgen Klopp average more points per game than the Reds have so far this term – in 2021-22 (2.42), 2018-19 (2.55), and when winning the title in 2019-20 (2.60).
Slot is the fifth Premier League boss to win the title in his maiden season in the competition, not counting the inaugural campaign. He followed in the footsteps of Jose Mourinho (Chelsea, 2004-05), Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea, 2009-10), Manuel Pellegrini (Man City, 2013-14) and Antonio Conte (Chelsea, 2016-17).
Liverpool have scored in each of their last 30 Premier League matches since a 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest in September. The only side to have a longer scoring run within a single campaign was Arsenal in the 2001-02 campaign, who scored in all 38 games.
Their goal tally stands at 80, 14 more than next-best Manchester City (66), while Liverpool have registered a league-leading 75.5 expected goals.
No team has created (136) or scored (53) as many big chances as the Reds, either.
But they have also been brilliant in defence, marshalled by the evergreen Virgil van Dijk.
Only Arsenal have conceded fewer goals (29) than Liverpool (32), with the Reds giving up the fewest expected goals against (28.94 xGA) of any team.
Chelsea might be the slight favourites, according to Opta’s model, but this is a huge test.
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Chelsea – Cole Palmer
Only four Premier League players have registered more goal contributions than Cole Palmer (22) this season.
The former Manchester City attacker has scored 14 goals and set up a further eight, though he has not netted in the top flight since doing so against Bournemouth in January.
Since then, Palmer has had 41 shots, averaging 3.91 per 90, but his drought rolls on.
Liverpool – Mohamed Salah
Salah has scored 28 Premier League goals and has a further 18 assists this season and needs one goal or assist to equal the record for goal involvements in one season, held by Andrew Cole in 1993-94 and Alan Shearer in 1994-95 (34 goals, 13 assists in both instances).
He also needs just one more goal to equal the record for goals aged 30 or older in a single Premier League season, which was set by Didier Drogba for Chelsea back in 2009-10 (29).
The Egyptian was unable to force his way in at Chelsea, but he has enjoyed playing against them, contributing to nine goals (five goals, four assists) in 14 league meetings with the Blues.
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