Charlie Nicholas believes that Liverpool right-back Trent Alexander-Arnold may struggle against Chelsea on Sunday.
He thinks that the 20-year-old will struggle to cope with the onslaught of Eden Hazard in particular, pinpointing the Belgian’s goal in the Blues’ Carabao Cup win earlier this season as that’s the last time the two players met.
The Sky Sports pundit admits that he is clueless as to how Liverpool will be able to nullify Hazard’s threat as a whole during the crunch clash.
“Liverpool’s way forward is to attack and get their full-backs high up. Alexander-Arnold may struggle against Hazard. The last time they met Hazard scored and Chelsea won in the Carabao Cup. I don’t know how they will stop him,” he told Sky Sports.
OPINION
Nicholas has got it absolutely spot on here, hasn’t he? A lot of the talk heading into this clash has mainly been about the obvious threat that Hazard can pose to Liverpool, and he will no doubt cause them a whole host of problems on Sunday. Nicholas is right though, Alexander-Arnold may struggle against a player of his quality. That is not to say that he is not capable of playing in a match of this magnitude, but as it has been proved in the past, the defender has struggled coping with the Chelsea star. If Liverpool can somehow stop him in his tracks, then they are pretty much dead certain to get one over their London rivals. If not, then Chelsea may be handed an extra advantage in their quest for the Premier League top four. Either way, it is clear who this is fixture is about – so let’s find out if the £225,000-a-week [Spotrac] star can live up to the hype or not.
