Jurgen
Klopp is likely to rotate his squad as Liverpool host Chelsea in Wednesday's
Carabao Cup third-round clash with Chelsea at Anfield, live on
Sky
Sports.
Liverpool have won their opening seven games of a season in all competitions
for the first time. This means Klopp's side have eclipsed the six wins
achieved at the start of the 1961/62 campaign under Bill Shankley.
That run could be under threat against Chelsea, who are unbeaten in their
last seven games against the Reds at Anfield - a run rolling back to a 4-1
defeat in the Premier League in 2012.
Chelsea have won this competition five times, second only to Liverpool, who
are eight-time winners but have yet to win a trophy in Klopp's tenure.
The two teams are set to meet again in the Premier League on Saturday and
Chelsea assistant manager Gianfranco Zola says the Blues are greedy and want
to win both games.
"Personally I think as Chelsea we want to win both of them if we can," he
said. "The game on Saturday will be huge. It means a lot.
"It is an important game [tomorrow]. We are Chelsea FC and we want to play
all of our games and try to win. We're going to take it seriously."
Team news
Simon Mignolet will replace Alisson in the Liverpool goal for his first
appearance of the season.
Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk will be carefully assessed ahead of
Wednesday's clash, but the Netherlands international is not expected to be
risked as he recovers from a minor rib injury.
Dejan Lovren could replace Van Dijk in the Liverpool starting line-up. The
Croatia international has trained four times and could make his first
appearance since the World Cup final.
Dominic Solanke is in line to feature against his former club but the game
may come too early for Adam Lallana (groin). Divock Origi is out.
Chelsea trio Pedro (shoulder), Antonio Rudiger (groin) and Ruben
Loftus-Cheek (foot) are out of the trip to Anfield.
Opta stats
Liverpool have won only two of their last 14 games against Chelsea in all
competitions (D7 L5), with both victories coming at Stamford Bridge.
This is the eighth League Cup meeting between Liverpool and Chelsea and the
first at the third round stage since November 2000, when the Reds won 2-1 at
Anfield with goals from Danny Murphy and Robbie Fowler.
Liverpool have lost their last three League Cup matches without scoring a
single goal, their worst ever run in the competition - the Reds have not
been eliminated at the third round stage in back to back seasons since doing
so in 1989-90 and 1990-91.
Chelsea have progressed from each of their last seven League Cup third round
ties since losing 4-3 to Newcastle United in 2010-11.
None of the last eight Chelsea managers to manage in the League Cup have
lost their first match in the competition (W7 D1), with Claudio Ranieri the
last Blues boss to lose his maiden game - losing against Liverpool in
November 2000.
This is the 57th meeting between Liverpool and Chelsea since the turn of the
millennium, making it the most played fixture in English football in that
time.
Goodman's prediction
This is juicy isn't it, especially because they are playing each other in
the Premier League at the weekend as well. Whoever loses this game will say
the cup was not the priority and has no relevance to Saturday, and whoever
wins will definitely use it going into that game.
Neither side will want to lose but I just think the depth of Liverpool this
season will be what sees them through to victory at Anfield.
Don Goodman predicts: 2-1 ()
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