Chelsea vs Liverpool Prediction: Blues to beat newly-crowned champions at the Bridge

Liverpool secured the 2024/25 Premier League title in stunning fashion last weekend, blitzing Tottenham Hotspur 5-1 at Anfield, and the pressure is now off the Reds for the rest of the season. The first of their final four games comes this Sunday (16:30, Sky Sports Main Event), as Chelsea host the champions at Stamford Bridge, with the Blues forming the first guard of honour.

Enzo Maresca's side have a job on their hands, however, as they continue their pursuit of a top-five finish that would bring Uefa Champions League football back to west London next season. Read on for my Chelsea vs Liverpool predictions, accompanied by the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Maresca has confirmed both Robert Sanchez and Christopher Nkunku will be assessed ahead of Liverpool’s visit to Stamford Bridge. The duo missed Thursday's Uefa Conference League semi-final first leg victory over Djurgarden (1-4) in Sweden, with the pair staying in London for treatment on small knocks.

"At the moment, just Marc Guiu and [Aaron] Anselmino are out,’ Maresca said on Friday. "Christo Nkunku has a small problem.

"When we get back to Cobham, the medical staff will tell me how he is and what his status is. He wasn’t with us in Sweden.

"It is exactly the same for Robert Sanchez too, although he is working on the pitch so compared to Christo, he is a better situation. He wasn’t with us in Sweden either and we will see and assess them both before Sunday."

Football Odds

Wesley Fofana and Omari Kellyman (both hamstring) are unlikely to return until next season, while Mykhailo Mudryk remains suspended.

Cole Palmer, Moises Caicedo, Nicolas Jackson, Pedro Neto, Trevoh Chalobah and Levi Colwill are expected to be restored to Chelsea's Premier League line-up, while Filip Jorgensen will make just a seventh top-flight appearance for the Blues if fellow shot-stopper Sanchez hasn't recovered in time.

Liverpool boss Arne Slot could make several changes to his starting XI with the title now wrapped up.

“It’s the end of the season, but we also have to look at this as the start of next season already,” Slot said. “There will be a certain rotation in the upcoming games. My lineups will be different towards the one we’ve had mostly during the last 10 months. We’re not gonna change everyone but there will be a few players that come into the team."

Caoimhin Kelleher could get the nod ahead of Alisson Becker in goal, while Jarell Quansah and Kostas Tsimikas will both be hoping for opportunities in defence.

In midfield, Wataru Endo, Harvey Elliott and Curtis Jones could come in, and in attack, Diogo Jota, Darwin Nunez and the sparsely-used Federico Chiesa are all waiting in the wings.

However, with Mohamed Salah looking to hit the 30-goal and 20-assist marks, I'm pretty confident the 'Egyptian King' will start on Sunday.

Virgil van Dijk, who has played every minute of every Premier League game for the Reds this season, should also begin the match as he aims to keep up his record.

Chelsea vs Liverpool Odds

Despite Liverpool enjoying a 22-point lead over Chelsea, it's the Blues who are favourites to claim all three points on Sunday, with odds of 23/20 implying a probability of 46.5%, while the Reds are 23/10, or a 30.3% chance, to record a first victory at the Bridge since September 2020.

The last three league meetings at this venue have finished in a draw, and you can back a fourth consecutive stalemate at 11/4, while both teams to score is priced at 1/2.

Former Chelsea winger Salah, who opened the scoring in Liverpool's 2-1 win over Maresca's side at Anfield in October, is 11/8 favourite in the anytime goalscorer market, followed by Blues duo Palmer (7/5) and Jackson (15/8).

Match Result & Both Teams to Score - Chelsea & Yes @ 12/5

A week-long hangover for the 2024/25 Premier League champions, perhaps?

Unlike Chelsea, Liverpool have been afforded a full week's rest, but you get the feeling it's not been an ordinary week of training at the club.

I'm sensing a lot of sore heads at the AXA Training Centre, and even those who haven't been on the drink probably won't be as focused on Sunday as they have been for the first 34 league games this season.

The job has been done for the Reds, and they can now relax, to an extent.

Of course, professionalism kicks in, but on one side we have a highly-motivated group of players desperate to achieve Champions League qualification, and on the other, we have a team with very little to play for.

You only have to look back to Liverpool's last league title, in 2020, to see how a team's standards can drop once the job is done. Chelsea's 2-1 victory over Manchester City on June 25 confirmed that the trophy was heading to Merseyside for the first time in the Premier League era, and a week later, the Reds were routed 4-0 by the Citizens at the Etihad Stadium.

Pep Guardiola's 2019/20 side may be a much better one than Maresca's 2024/25 cohort at the Bridge, but there's still enough quality in their ranks to pose several problems for Slot's charges on Sunday.

I'm confident the visitors can get on the scoresheet - they've only been denied once in the league this season, in September's 1-0 Anfield defeat to Nottingham Forest - but it's the Blues who I'm backing to claim all three points this weekend in their pursuit of a top-five finish.

Chelsea have won six of their last seven league games at the Bridge, and they look to be hitting form at just the right time.

Player Shots on Target - Marc Cucurella (CHE) @ 10/3

Chelsea left-back Marc Cucurella has enjoyed the most prolific league campaign of his career in 2024/25, netting four times in 32 Premier League appearances, and three of those strikes have come this calendar year.

The 26-year-old has also struck twice in the Conference League, most recently netting in a 2-1 defeat to Legia Warsaw on April 17.

Cucurella has registered 10 shots on target in the English top flight this term, but three of those have come in his last two competition outings, one in Chelsea's 2-1 victory at Fulham on April 20, and two in last Saturday's 1-0 win against Everton, bringing his season average up to 0.3 per 90.

The Spaniard didn't feature in October's reverse fixture at Anfield, but he's a certainty to start on Sunday at Stamford Bridge, where he will be looking to test whoever is between the sticks for Liverpool.

Offers

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