Chelsea vs Liverpool Betting Tips (13/08/23)

The Build-Up

Last summer was dominated by, frankly, bizarre Chelsea business. With roughly £600 million spent in the summer and January transfer windows in the 2022/23 campaign, The Blues have created a situation in which their current squad is unbalanced but also still lacking quality personnel in key areas. There is set to be yet another massive chunk of money paid out this summer and the overall squad appears no better or clearer than it did 12 months ago.

However, they should be a much-improved side both to watch and in terms of general effectiveness with Mauricio Pochettino able to have a full pre-season with the players currently at Stamford Bridge. The constant chopping and changing of both system and personnel last summer is not something one would expect under the almost rigid 4-2-3-1 disciple that Pochettino is. There should be a lot more on-pitch cohesion even if the off-field noise continues.

Liverpool have also endured something of an unusual summer with them beginning in June requiring a couple of midfielders, getting their business done quickly with the arrivals of Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai but then allowing experienced duo Fabinho and Jordan Henderson to leave so not necessarily being back to square one but certainly still in need of at least one, probably two central midfielders, especially with the likes of James Milner, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Naby Keita also departing this summer.

In the second half of last season, Liverpool finally began to click, especially going forward, with only Manchester City and Arsenal collecting more points than The Reds in the calendar year of 2023. Their attacking options are plentiful and whilst it may not be the machine-like Liverpool side that romped to the 2019/20 Premier League title, we could see a rejuvenation of their attacking play, akin to when Klopp took over at Anfield in the Autumn of 2015.

Betting Trends to Watch

A trend towards the end of last season for punters eyeing up potential football tips would be the entertaining fashion in which Liverpool went about their business as they aimed to put pressure on Manchester United and Newcastle United in the top four spots. Their final game of the season, a 4-4 draw with Southampton, was representative of the previous couple of months and could be indicative of what to expect from The Reds this season as they transition from control back to chaos.

The last 12 matches of their season, post the March international break, consisted of 45 goals (an average of 3.75), despite a third of those matches having just two goals or fewer. Combine that with the fact Jurgen Klopp and Mauricio Pochettino’s head-to-head record features both teams scoring in eight out of the 11 matches, backing goals could be something of value.

The Form

Chelsea, in their first summer under the management of Mauricio Pochettino, have been rock steady in their insistence on a 4-2-3-1 system and have begun to get to grips with the patterns of play intended to be implemented by the Argentine coach. They began their summer with a 5-0 thrashing of Wrexham before the Premier League summer series in which they defeated Brighton by four goals to three, as well as Fulham 2-0, sandwiching a 1-1 draw with Newcastle. Their final friendly was a 1-1 draw with Borussia Dortmund last week.

Jurgen Klopp has often been keen to take Liverpool to central Europe for their pre-season schedule and training with The Reds going to Germany but then off to the far east this summer. They have had yet another thrilling and high-scoring set of matches with their five friendlies consisting of 29 goals. That includes a 4-0 win against Leicester, a 3-1 victory versus Darmstadt and defeating Karlsruher by four goals to two with a 4-3 loss to Bayern Munich and another 4-4 draw, this time against Greuther Furth.

Head-to-Head Meetings

Chelsea and Liverpool have faced each other an awful lot throughout history but particularly since the turn of the century, across all competitions. They have played 194 matches with Liverpool winning 84 and Chelsea managing 65 victories. Surprisingly, the recent history of the two sides has been sheer Liverpool domination, really.

Chelsea have managed just two wins in their last 14 meetings but the last six matches, inside 90 or 120 minutes, have all been drawn. The worrying statistic would be the last 465 minutes of football between these two sides has produced zero goals.

Chelsea vs Liverpool Betting Tips

The fallacy that a trend is repeatedly occurring so will end soon is often a foolish thing to back when it comes to looking at Premier League odds but, in this instance, backing against a low-scoring encounter looks good. Given that the last four meetings between these two have been goalless, that is such an unlikely trend it simply should not continue – especially given the nature of the way these two sides have played in pre-season and the manner in which their two coaches would like to go about their business. It could be quite an even contest and the draw market could offer good value for a high-scoring bet with both teams scoring looks like the way to go for this one.

All odds are accurate at the time of writing.