EPL bosses Jose Mourinho and Rafa Benitez will renew their intense rivalry and word throwing this weekend as Liverpool will host Chelsea at Anfield on Sunday.

With Chelsea near the top of the early EPL table (along with Everton and Man. City) this will be their first real test against another team who consider themselves true title contenders.

In truth Chelsea has had a tough time in their first 2 games as they have had to come back from behind both times on their way to victory. Liverpool, on the other hand, have only played 1 league game thus far (a debatable victory over Aston Villa), having traveled to France in mid-week to face Toulouse in the Champions League Qualifying round.

With captain, John Terry out injured, Chelsea’s usual defensive blockade has been leaky, and even the usually steady Petr Cech has made some early uncharacteristic errors. Chelsea is also determined to play this season with more attacking flair, which could also leave them more exposed at the back this season.

Even with all of Liverpool’s attacking signings this summer, Rafa continues to rely on the lone striker system with the other forwards pushed wide. This reluctance to play all out could have detrimental effects in the league as it usually does for Liverpool as they ended third place last year 15 points behind second place Chelsea.

The importance of this game is illustrated by the fact the Liverpool’s inspirational captain, Steven Gerrard is likely to play even though he suffered a hairline toe fracture in the 1-0 victory over Toulouse.

Still Chelsea will dismantle Liverpool this time around, reminding the Kop faithful that a reserved philosophy is what keeps them from ever winning an EPL title.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 17th, 2007 at 7:15 pm and is filed under Soccer World, England, EPL. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.