
Chelsea
captain Gary Cahill believes David Luiz can play a big part in Andreas
Christensen's development.
Luiz, one of the cornerstones of last season's title-winning side, was
dropped after the 3-0 defeat at Roma in the Champions League.
Denmark defender Christensen replaced him for the 1-0 win over Manchester
United and kept his place for last Saturday's 4-0 victory at West Brom.
Luiz returned for Wednesday night's 4-0 win at Qarabag, which secured
Chelsea's place in the last 16 of the Champions League, giving Antonio Conte
a selection dilemma ahead of Saturday's trip to Liverpool.
"David came back in and performed well," Cahill said. "Andreas is a younger
version of him if you like. I feel like David can offer Andreas a lot of
help in his progression. He has been there and done it at the top, top
level, he has won many trophies.
"David is a very experienced defender and Andreas' attributes are very
similar. I feel that he (Luiz) can advise him tremendously and he has done
up until now."
The result in Baku means Chelsea have qualified for the knockout stage ahead
of December's final group match against Atletico Madrid and Cahill believes
Chelsea can take advantage of the situation.
He went on: "The aim was to get through from the start of the campaign. It
is a good achievement. We are happy, we knew we had to win. We didn't want
to leave it until the last game, for what will be a very difficult game.
"It does alleviate the pressure against Atletico. We have a job to do in a
fortnight, but beating Qarabag has taken some of the edge off."
Chelsea arrived home in the early hours of Thursday morning giving them a
day less than Liverpool, who drew 3-3 at Sevilla on Tuesday, to prepare for
the game at Anfield.
The Reds were 3-0 up at half-time, but Conte is not reading too much into
the result. "I watched the game and I think Liverpool played a really good
first half with great intensity and they scored three goals," he said.
"Football is strange. What happened in the second half is very difficult to
explain. Liverpool also in the second half had opportunities to score other
goals. In the second half they were also unlucky."