Gary Neville seriously disagrees with Paul Merson’s Liverpool v Chelsea prediction: ‘They’re a bit…’

The time has come for Liverpool to embrace the next major hurdle in their first Premier League campaign under new head coach Arne Slot.

The Merseysiders will welcome fellow high-flyers Chelsea to Anfield after having secured an 18-point haul from their opening seven top-flight games in 2024/25.

There are still doubts aplenty over the Reds’ title credentials in light of what was objectively deemed to be a generous early fixture schedule.

Indeed, it only emboldened pundits to write off Liverpool in the title race ahead of the October international break.

Gary Neville counters Paul Merson’s Liverpool v Chelsea score prediction

Gary Neville backed Liverpool to take all three points against Chelsea on their return to domestic football this weekend.

The former Manchester United fullback went for a 3-1 victory to the hosts, which would ensure they maintain their place at the top of the Premier League table going into the next matchweek.

“I think Liverpool beat them. I think Chelsea, they’re a bit younger… 3-2? 3-1? Liverpool 3-1,” the MNF host spoke on The Overlap.

“I think it will be a big atmosphere that day, I think Chelsea will just…”

Will just… crumble? That appears to have been the direction of travel Neville was going down whilst discussing the tie with Wayne Rooney.

Now we’ll never know!

Fellow Sky pundit Paul Merson, however, was of a different mind when previewing the Blues’ impending trip to Anfield.

The former Arsenal star backed Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea to secure a 2-2 draw at L4. However, he was gracious enough to acknowledge that a Liverpool win would establish Arne Slot’s side as genuine title challengers.

We’d like to think the nature of our positive start to the campaign means we’re already in the frame!

Nonetheless, we’re sure our Dutch head coach and his squad are more than happy being underrated all the way through to the business end of the campaign.