Liverpool vs Chelsea LIVE: Premier League result and final score after Diaz goal and Nkunku penalty appeal

Liverpool have lost just one of their last 11 Premier League games against Chelsea (four wins, six draws) but are also winless in six top-flight matches against the Blues (five draws, one defeat).

Alexis Mac Allister returns to the Liverpool starting XI after being left out of the 5-2 FA Cup win against Norwich because of injury. He is one of four changes with Virgil van Dijk, Luis Díaz and Dominik Szoboszlai also starting.

Chelsea, meanwhile, make just one change from the side that drew 0-0 with Aston Villa in the FA Cup last-time out. Ben Chilwell comes in with Alfie Gilchrist dropping to the bench.

Liverpool XI: Alisson; Bradley, Konate, Van Dijk, Gomez; Jones, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai; Diaz, Nunez, Jota

Chelsea XI: Chelsea XI: Petrovic; Disasi, Thiago Silva, Badiashile, Chilwell; Caicedo, Fernandez; Madueke, Palmer, Sterling; Palmer

Virgil van Dijk has stressed that Liverpool’s priority this season remains on the here and now following the announcement that Jurgen Klopp is stepping down as manager.

The Reds are still competing to win a possible four trophies in the coming months and Van Dijk wants to bring more silverware to Anfield.

“It’s all about small margins,” the Liverpool captain told Sky Germany. “We have to focus on the things we can control.

“I think the main things that we can control are to stay fit and try to keep the consistent level we have been doing throughout the whole season so far because that has been bringing us success, [and] hopefully winning games.

“Other than those things, we have to make sure we do it all together. The players, the staff [and] the fans have a big, big role to play as well. I think that’s also a big part of why we are where we are: because we have aligned and we are together.

“We have to keep that going until the end of the season and like I said before, there’s no guarantee that we are winning trophies, but we are in a good way. So, let’s go.”

Jurgen Klopp has explained Liverpool’s record £111m bid for Moises Caicedo last summer by saying it was a consequence of missing out on Jude Bellingham and came as prices for defensive midfielders skyrocketed.

The Ecuadorian will face Liverpool on Wednesday for the first time since rejecting a transfer from Brighton to Liverpool in August and instead joining Chelsea for £115m, the biggest fee ever paid by a British club, with Klopp believing he already had an “emotional agreement” with Mauricio Pochettino.

Klopp moved to clarify his comments last month when he said Liverpool “got lucky” by missing out on Caicedo and Romeo Lavia, who also joined Chelsea, by saying that he was reflecting how pleased he was with the midfielders he did sign – in Dominik Szoboszlai, Alexis Mac Allister, Wataru Endo and Ryan Gravenberch – and not criticising those he did not.

Tonight’s match at Anfield will probably see Moises Caicedo playing against the team he turned down to join Chelsea in the summer.

Mauricio Pochettino believes the fact two big clubs were interested in the Ecuador international shows the huge potential he has, even if he has been hampered in his efforts to show his full ability so far this season.

“It’s not only Chelsea but Liverpool also believed that he can be one of the best midfielders in the future,” said Pochettino, “But after that it’s about adaptation. He didn’t do a pre-season, he had some problems when he was travelling for international duty, there are so many things which delayed the adaptation to the team and to the club.

“The circumstances maybe delayed it a little bit for him to perform, but I think there’s no doubt he has the profile to be one of the best midfielders in the Premier League. He was already showing what he’s capable of doing at Brighton.

“If you ask me or any of the coaches here, always we are talking about improving. Always we demand more and more, not only from him but from all the players in the whole squad. He still can improve a lot.

“The last few performances we feel like we are doing well as a team. We are happy in the way that we are working but I think still we are far away from the expectations that we created at the beginning of the season.”

Each of the last seven meetings between Liverpool and Chelsea in all competitions has finished in a draw.

That’s including two domestic cup finals in 2022, both subsequently won by the Reds on penalties. It is the longest run of consecutive draws between two top-flight clubs in English football history.

There will be an Anfield exodus in the summer. But, Jurgen Klopp insists, it will be confined to the coaching staff. No sooner had the German confirmed he will stand down, along with his assistants Pep Lijnders and Peter Krawietz, elite development coach Vitor Matos and sporting director Jorg Schmadtke, then attention turned to his other key allies: to captain Virgil van Dijk, to vice-captain Trent Alexander-Arnold and top scorer Mohamed Salah, who are all out of contract in 2025.

The concern was that Liverpool 2.0 would be a one-season affair; it was not one Klopp shared, nor, he argued, the more intelligent among their fanbase do. Yet the sense the future is suddenly uncertain was amplified when Van Dijk said he was unsure if he had a part to play after Klopp goes.

The £75m centre-back turns 33 this summer, 34 a week after his contract expires. Klopp is confident he will be at Anfield for a long time. “Just to shut the story down, I will say… yes,” he said. “It’s just because somebody asked Virgil and we have made it a case. Virg is a grown man with a family, four kids. He will decide about his future, nothing to do with me or whatever, he loves this club and is so happy to be here. But when the contract is ending, you start thinking. That’s all.”

That was a question asked to the Liverpool manager in his press conference and Klopp replied that the club is in a good place and he doesn’t expect an exodus in players when he leaves.

“No. I don’t think [so]. It’s completely normal,” Klopp said, “That was always clear when we spoke about [him leaving] I said what I had to say. Then it was always clear that the outside world will not give you a second to process it [or] to think about it.

“It’s just the next thing, ‘What are you doing?’ So, a week ago, or whenever, nobody knew about my decision it was [the case that] he [Virgil van Dijk] had 18 months on the contract [and] nobody asked. So, give us a break... of course it’s about if I’m here we need to create a perspective and all these kinds of things and what’s happening next and stuff like this. That’s completely normal. Nobody has to worry.

“And, by the way, that’s why I say this team, the majority of everything, is exactly like it is. But if you want to find somebody who is not safe now and has a contract [until] 2025 you will find it. I knew that will happen because you can’t wait with these kind of questions.

“Virgil didn’t go out and say, ‘By the way what I want to say...’ so it’s always about the questions. We always need to answer and these kind of things.

“Write what you want, this club is stable 100 per cent. Everything will be fine, I’m 100 per cent sure. The rest, we have to get through this, we have to get through your questions. We have to give some answers and that’s how it is. Our people, I would recommend to stay calm in this department, massively.”

Jurgen Klopp spoke in his pre-match press conference about what he is expecting from tonight’s match and how he believes that Chelsea have improved since the start of the season.

“Of course, they play really good stuff. It’s a really good team,” said the Liverpool boss, “[They have] an outstanding manager obviously and nobody was ever [in] doubt about that.

“So, I’m not 100 per cent sure, but I think it’s a team in form points-wise [and] won the majority of their games recently. We played them on the first matchday, obviously there we were not great that day and they were pretty good and we got a draw, which was fine for us that day.

“We were not over the moon with our performance but the point was alright. So, we have to do better but we are different as well since then and that’s the good news.”