Liverpool v Chelsea preview: Jurgen Klopp likely to rotate squad

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 from 7pm.

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 Shankly.

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.

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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 (15/2 with Sky Bet)

Watch Liverpool v Chelsea live from 7pm on Wednesday on Sky Sports Football

Liverpool 1

Chelsea 2