Chelsea spent an enormous amount of money on signings in the January transfer window and the Blues squad has now been reshaped over the summer, with N’Golo Kante, Hakim Ziyech and Kai Havertz among the players who have left Stamford Bridge. New manager Mauricio Pochettino might need time to create a winning team, although expectation levels are high.

Poch might have his work cut out in this 2023/24 curtain-raiser against a Liverpool side who are among the title rivals, with the bookies making Chelsea the outsider of the two to claim a victory. They will at least have new signing Christian Nkunku lining up in attack and the former Leipzig forward arrives with a strong reputation for scoring goals.

Interestingly, both of the matches involving Chelsea and Liverpool finished goalless last season, with Graham Potter presiding over a goalless draw at Anfield last January before Frank Lampard saw the Blues claim a point against their Merseyside opponents in April. Now Pochettino will attempt to engineer a positive result and a point might be a good outcome.

However, Liverpool boast plenty of attacking weapons, with Mohamed Salah the favourite to open the scoring against his former club and the Egyptian will be looking to hit the ground running. With Luis Diaz having enjoyed a pre-season after an injury hit 2022/23 campaign, then perhaps the game can go in favour of the visitors although they did have their troubles on the road last term.

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