September 22, one of the biggest rivalries in English football took place as Chelsea faced off against Liverpool. Sophomore Sean Bartholomew, a Chelsea fan through and through, strongly believed that they would come away with the victory.

Chelsea employed club legend Frank Lampard as their new manager to start their new campaign.

“Even though he’s new to the manager position we played Liverpool in preseason and only narrowly lost to them,” Bartholomew said.

With an average age of 26 for the starting lineup, the inexperience might come costly in such a massive game, but Bartholomew thinks otherwise.

“No, I personally don’t believe the age of the players will affect the game because the boys have been playing well despite some of the players still being in their teens,” Bartholomew said.

Chelsea has won five out of the last 10 games against Liverpool. The last game against liverpool was a 5-4 loss on penalties in the Super Cup Final.

“Some players will be nervous but having experienced players in the team such as Kante and Azpilicueta this will calm the young players down,” Bartholomew said.

Local Liverpool fan, sophomore Hussein Darugar has a lot of hope for the upcoming game against Chelsea. Liverpool are sitting on the top of the table currently four points clear of second place Manchester City.

With Chelsea’s main forward Tammy Abraham currently the top goal scorer this season with seven goals in five games.

“He could be a threat because he is very unpredictable and quick with and without the ball,” Darugar said.

Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane only have five goals each this season. 

“I believe after a big game like this there connection between each other will tear Chelsea’s defense apart,” Darugar said.

With Alisson Becker being injured for just over 10 weeks, Adrián San Miguel del Castillo has had to start seven games in a row now.

“He has the experience to play well in these big games because he’s played in these big games many times throughout his career,” Darugar said.

If Liverpool came away from this game with three points, they would retain their lead at the top.

Even though the inexperience of chelsea they still put up a good fight having more shots and more possession than Liverpool.

“The age of the players did not affect the game because even at the young age that they are they’ve been playing at a high level for most of their teenage years,” Bartholomew said.

Tammy Abraham, 22 years old this season and with 7 goals, his age was shown when he went clean through on goal and missed the chance to put his team back on level terms.

“If the game went on for 10 minutes longer then I do believe that we would have come away with a win,” Bartholomew said.

Last season Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane came away from the season with 22 goals each.

“They didn’t turn up but because of the balance of the team we came away with a big win against a top side,” Darugar said.

Cesar Azpilicueta thought he had equalised in the twenty-eighth minute but when he saw the offside flag he knew it had been ruled out.

“The game would’ve changed completely because at the time of the Cesar Azpilicueta goal he would’ve put the game back on level terms,” Darugar said.