Mauricio Pochettino feels Liverpool are the favourites to win the Carabao Cup final, but Chelsea will challenge after regaining momentum.
The Argentine was responding to comments made by Jurgen Klopp earlier this week, in which he stated that his diminished Reds team is “definitely not” the favourites for Sunday’s match at Wembley.
Darwin Nunez, Dominik Szoboszlai, and Mohamed Salah are among the seven to ten Liverpool players who are out injured for the championship game.
In the Premier League standings, Chelsea is currently 25 points behind leaders Liverpool despite missing eight players as well. In response to a question concerning Klopp’s remarks during Wednesday’s 4-1 comeback victory over Luton at Anfield, Pochettino stated that his rival is an experienced leader.
Pochettino stated on Friday, “Of course, I think Liverpool are the favourites.” They have participated in team competitions and finals in the past few years.
Not only are our players unfamiliar with the Premier League and Carabao Cup, but for a few of them, this is their first-ever final. I think that’s why I make them my favourites.
But he’s astute enough to point out that it’s 50/50. Indeed, they are undoubtedly favourites. This is how things are constantly.
Nevertheless, Pochettino is optimistic about Chelsea’s prospects after watching the Blues advance with victories at Crystal Palace and Aston Villa before an outstanding stalemate away at Manchester City last weekend.
“I think we were learning a lot in the last few weeks,” he continued. From there, we took action. We arrived in fantastic shape and with good momentum.
We faced Aston Villa, Palace, and Manchester City in our competitions after Wolves. It gave the crew self-assurance and trust.
“The squad is now prepared for the match. All it took was a click to alter our competitive strategy, which was lacking during the first half of the season.
