Gary Neville has made his prediction ahead of Chelsea’s crucial match against Liverpool on Sunday.
The immediate focus for Enzo Maresca’s side is Thursday night’s first leg away to Swedish club Djurgarden in the Conference League semi-finals. Afterwards, the Blues host rivals Liverpool a few days later in the Premier League.
For Liverpool, they’ve been in party mode for the last few days after Sunday’s 5-1 win at home to Tottenham crowned them Premier League champions for the 2024/25 season with four games to spare. The Merseyside club will officially lift the division title at Anfield after the final day against Crystal Palace.
As for Chelsea, their league season still has plenty of jeopardy in it because they’re fighting to finish in the top five positions, which would secure Champions League qualification for next season.
Earlier in April, Jamie Carragher said Chelsea won’t qualify for the Champions League because they’ve got a tough set of fixtures left. The Blues play liverpool (home), Newcastle United (away), Manchester United (home) and Nottingham Forest (away) in their remaining top-flight matches.
Gary Neville tips Chelsea to beat Liverpool
Gary Neville, the former Premier League star and now pundit, believes that Chelsea will overcome Liverpool in their weekend showdown.
He’s expecting the Reds to be slightly off the pace because of some title celebrations this week.
Neville told The Overlap US: “I actually think Chelsea could win. I’m imagining that Liverpool have had a massive party that’s probably still going now. You have those drinks, those lads haven’t been drinking for a month or two, they’re going to absolutely go crazy. Their bodies will be into shut down up until Wednesday, Thursday. They’re going to train a bit slow and a bit sloppier.
“I think they’ll just get edged out. I think it’ll be 2-1 to Chelsea. Scorer for Chelsea, I’ll go [Cole] Palmer.”
If Neville is right with his prediction, Chelsea will beat Liverpool for the first time in over four years. The last time they overcame them in any competition was a Premier League fixture in March 2021.
| Date | Result | Competition |
| 20 October 2024 | Liverpool 2-1 Chelsea | Premier League |
| 25 February 2024 | Chelsea 0-1 Liverpool | League Cup |
| 31 January 2024 | Liverpool 4-1 Chelsea | Premier League |
| 13 August 2023 | Chelsea 1-1 Liverpool | Premier League |
| 4 April 2023 | Chelsea 0-0 Liverpool | Premier League |
| 21 January 2023 | Liverpool 0-0 Chelsea | Premier League |
| 14 May 2022 | Chelsea 0-0 Liverpool | FA Cup |
| 27 February 2022 | Chelsea 0-0 Liverpool | League Cup |
| 2 January 2022 | Chelsea 2-2 Liverpool | Premier League |
| 28 August 2021 | Liverpool 1-1 Chelsea | Premier League |
| 4 March 2021 | Liverpool 0-1 Chelsea | Premier League |
If he plays, Chelsea will obviously need to be wary of Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah. He’s scored eight times in his career against the Blues in 23 matches.
Apparently, Mohamed Salah considered a return to Chelsea before signing a new contract extension at Liverpool in April.
What Arne Slot said about Chelsea earlier this season
Earlier in the campaign, Chelsea suffered a 2-1 defeat away to Liverpool in the first league meeting. They were very unfortunate to lose based on their overall performance, though.
Liverpool manager Arne Slot has spoken very highly about Chelsea several times this season, often referring back to the previous clash between the teams. Back in December, Slot said: “I think it was one of the games, maybe the only game, where I felt the other team was better than us during that game.”
We suspect Slot would have been looking at the reverse fixture against Chelsea as a chance to alter a few things. However, has that all gone out the window now that Liverpool are Premier League champions?
