Chelsea v Liverpool: Premier League – live

Chelsea: Arrizabalaga, Wesley Fofana, Koulibaly, Cucurella, James, Fernandez, Kante, Chilwell, Havertz, Kovacic, Joao Felix. Subs: Badiashile, Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Mudryk, Mendy, Sterling, Mount, Gallagher, Madueke.

Liverpool: Alisson, Gomez, Konate, Matip, Tsimikas, Jones, Fabinho, Henderson, Jota, Firmino, Nunez. Subs: Milner, Salah, Gakpo, Robertson, Carvalho, Arthur, Phillips, Kelleher, Alexander-Arnold.

Referee: Anthony Taylor (Cheshire)

Back in the relative hey-day of both these clubs, this fixture was once a mid-week staple in the Champions League. Alex’s thunderbastard of a free-kick, Luis García’s ghost goal, Frank Lampard’s tears. Yep, those encounters had just about everything, as the Blues and the Reds played out some timeless battles on their own journeys to European glory.

Things are a little different now. Chelsea are simultaneously without a manager, in the Champions League quarter-finals and undergoing something of an existential crisis, while Liverpool are pinballing between the sublime and the ridiculous. Out of Europe and both domestic cups, Liverpol’s season is not quite dead yet, although defeat tonight at the Bridge should put a bullet in their faint top-four hopes, the bare minimum for a passable campaign.

Here’s how things stand before kick-off. I’m going to have to post the entire league table because … er … both teams are nowhere near the top of it.

Much has been written about Chelsea in recent days, and if you haven’t quite caught up with the whole picture, might I suggest you start here, here and here. Oh, and watch this.

Chelsea have followed Tottenham in sacking their manager, retaining most of said manager’s staff, and carrying on as normal as though nobody is watching. Bruno Saltor might be a generational managerial talent that has finally got his chance, but he’s more likely to be a Diet Potter, having followed Graham from Brighton’s first-team to Brighton’s backroom staff to Chelsea’s backroom staff. It’s a struggle to see how Chelsea will be transformed. Blues fans have every right to be as worried as Tottenham ones at the moment.

What we can say for certain is that we have absolutely no idea what is going to happen. And that’s quite exciting, isn’t it?

Kick-off: 8pm BST.