Premier League Preview 2013/14: Chelsea (H)

Premier League Preview 2013/14: Chelsea (H)
April 27, 2014 Gary Fulcher

By Gary Fulcher, Daniel Rhodes and Mihail Vladimirov.

Liverpool’s 3-2 victory over Norwich City at Carrow Road on Sunday means we need seven points from our final three games (giving us 87 points) to be crowned Champions of England for the 19th time. The first of those three games is the visit of Jose Mourinho’s 2nd placed Chelsea to Anfield on Sunday – 2.05pm kick off UK time – where victory for the Reds would eliminate Chelsea from the title race.

The Blues have three games left (us, Norwich at home and Cardiff City away) and even if they win all three, they would end the season with 84 points, meaning we could lose to Chelsea, draw with Crystal Palace and beat Newcastle and still finish ahead of the Stamford Bridge outfit on goal difference (we currently have a goal difference of +52 compared to Chelsea’s +41), unless they hammer us by six clear goals at Anfield. Chelsea also had the not so small matter of a Champions League semi-final trip to Spain where they faced Atletico Madrid on Tuesday evening (claiming a 0-0 draw while suffering injuries to Cech and Terry in the process), whereas we will have had a full seven days to prepare for this fixture.

Although it would be foolish to overlook Chelsea, for many, Manchester City would appear to be our biggest threat. If City win their four remaining games, they will end the season with 86 points but with tough looking trips to both Crystal Palace and Everton, that is a far from guaranteed outcome for Pellegrini’s side and they would still have to rely on us to lose one of our three final games for them to claim the title.

Chelsea are in their worst form of the season having lost three of their last six Premier League games: 0-1 at Aston Villa, 0-1 at Crystal Palace and 1-2 at home to Sunderland. Prior to their defeat at Aston Villa on 15 March, they had lost just three of their previous 29 league games; 0-1 at Everton, 0-2 at Newcastle and 2-3 at Stoke City. Five of their six defeats in the league have came away from home but no team has kept more clean sheets (16), conceded fewer goals in total (25) or on their travels (15 ) than Chelsea.

Liverpool have found clean sheets harder to come by – 10 so far from 35 matches – but no team has scored more goals (96), won more games (25) and lost fewer games (5) than Brendan Rodgers’ table topping side.

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