Saturday Night Football
Stamford Bridge, home of the World Champs™ welcomes the current reigning Champions of England on this early autumn night, October 4, 2025. Neither team are playing up to those lofty standards at the moment, but hey, winning a title earns you the right to call yourself that title until someone else wins it.
That said, Liverpool do still come into the weekend atop the Premier League, one point ahead of AFC Bournemouth (who already played this round, beating Fulham, 3-1 last night), two points ahead of Arsenal, and three points ahead of Crystal Palace, who beat them just last weekend. We might remember Palace coming to the Bridge on opening day and taking a point from us — they remain the only unbeaten team in the league.
After that Palace defeat, Liverpool went to Istanbul and promptly took the L from Galatasaray as well. So they’re either reeling and it’s a good time to play them, or they’re very angry and it’s a very bad time to play them.
I suppose we’ll find out soon enough!
Date / Time: Saturday, October 4, 2025, 17.30 BST; 12:30pm EDT; 10pm IST
Venue: Stamford Bridge, SW6
Referee: Anthony Taylor (on pitch); Craig Pawson (VAR)
Forecast: Gusty winds
On TV: Sky Sports Main Event (UK); NBC, Universo (USA); Star Sports Select HD1 (India); SuperSport Premier League, Canal+ Sport 3 (NGA); elsewhere
Streaming: Sky Go (UK); Peacock, Telemundo Deportes En Vivo (USA); Disney+ Hotstar (India); DStv Now (NGA)
Chelsea team news: The team news is that there is no real news, so it’s as-you-were with regards to injuries. I guess we can call that good news: no new injuries! (Just a bunch of old ones.)
However, Benoît Badiashile may not be ready to go again just yet, having just returned from a long injury layoff, while the likes of João Pedro and Moisés Caicedo were just barely passing fit in the last few outings. The status and progress of Wesley Fofana through concussion protocol also remains unclear. With Trevoh Chalobah suspended, we could be down to Josh Acheampong and Jorrel Hato at center back. Not exactly a duo to strike fear into Reds’ hearts.
Cole Palmer, Tosin Adarabioyo, and Andrey Santos should be back after the international break, which is coming up after this game — though Enzo Maresca was reticent to re-confirm that in Palmer’s case when asked about it in Friday’s press conference. If the 23-year-old ends up needing surgery to correct this persistent groin problem, we’re going to regret wasting all these weeks and months in trying to just “manage” it. In fact, all we’ve managed is to score exactly just one goal in four straight games against proper opposition (i.e. not third-division Lincoln City) — and we’re not likely to repeat Tuesday’s 1-0 scoreline too often.
Then again, maybe we can just start by not having a player sent off, like we’ve had in three straight games against proper opposition (i.e. not third-division Lincoln City).
Liverpool team news: It’s hard to recall a title-winning team undergoing as much chop and change as Liverpool had this summer. Just imagine if Mo Salah and Virgil van Dijk hadn’t signed new contract extensions six days apart in the spring!
Even with that, Liverpool spent more in this window than any other Premier League team in history (eclipsing even BlueCo’s 2023 summer) and they broke the league’s transfer record not once, but twice, by signing Florian Wirtz (£100+16m) and then Alexander Isak (£125m). The £79m spent on Hugo Ekitike was the third biggest deal of the whole summer and it barely registers compared to those other two. Jeremie Frimpong, Milos Kerkez, and Giovanni Leoni, combined, made up another £100m outlay, all of which was only partially offset by the departures of Trent Alexander-Arnold, Caoimhín Kelleher, Luis Díaz, and Darwin Núñez, among others.
Given all this squad upheaval — including the tragic passing of Diogo Jota in an automobile accident — it’s perhaps not surprising that Liverpool haven’t exactly been a well oiled machine so far. But one thing that remains quite apparent in the team, as in all great teams, is the winning mentality and determination. Six of their seven wins (in all competitions) have come courtesy of winning goals in the 83rd minute or later, with three of those six coming in stoppage time.
The one big absence for the visitors will be Alisson Becker, who’s been ruled out with a hamstring injury. Euro 2024-darling Giorgi Mamardashvili, who completed his long pre-agreed move to Anfield this summer, will deputize in goal. Ekitike, who leads the team in scoring with five goals in all competitions, and Federico Chiesa, who’s third in the same category with two, are facing late fitness tests while young Leoni is out for the season after tearing his ACL the other week, on his debut. Ouch.
Previously: Champions-elect Liverpool were already on the beach last May when we beat them, 3-1 at the Bridge. That was our first win against them in eleven tries, including three Cup finals.
Category: General Sports
