Liverpool XI vs Chelsea FC: Starting lineup, confirmed team news, injuries, Covid latest for Premier League

Liverpool are missing Alisson, Joel Matip and Roberto Firmino due to Covid-19 for today’s massive Premier League showdown with Chelsea, while manager Jurgen Klopp is also absent.

Klopp did not name the players in question at his pre-match press conference on Friday, but ahead of kick-off the club confirmed the three players who have tested positive.

Three members of backroom staff have tested positive, with assistant Pepijn Lijnders leading the team at Stamford Bridge this afternoon.

The absence of Alisson is a particularly unwelcome one for the Reds, and it means Caoimhin Kelleher plays for just the second time in the Premier League this season.

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Ibrahima Konate partners Virgil van Dijk in Matip’s absence, while it’s a midfield of Fabinho, Jordan Henderson and James Milner.

Liverpool are without injured duo Thiago Alcantara and Takumi Minamino, who missed the 1-0 defeat at Leicester with muscle soreness.

Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Naby Keita are available for what is likely to be the final time before they head off to the Africa Cup of Nations, but Keita does not make the starting lineup and is on the bench.

Andy Roberton is still suspended, so Kostas Tsimikas starts at left-back.

Asked whether the Covid situation led to Liverpool seeking a postponement of the fixture, Klopp said on Friday: “Not yet, but we don’t know.

“We never had this kind of proper outbreak where 10, 15, 20 players had it, for us it’s more every day another one. Staff happens now more and more often, so as I said before it feels like a lottery in the morning when you stand there and you wait for the result. It was now pretty much day by day always one case – today another one.

“We have to wait, the boys are not even in yet, so we have to wait. In this moment, probably not but we don’t know how it will look in a few hours.”

Liverpool XI (4-3-3): Kelleher; Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Tsimikas; Fabinho, Henderson, Milner; Salah, Jota, Mane.

Subs: Adrian, Pitaluga, Keita, Gomez, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Jones, Beck, Williams, Morton