Liverpool's Dominik Szoboszlai receives PFA Player of the Year backing before Chelsea Premier League fixture

Ahead of Saturday's early Premier League kickoff between Liverpool and Chelsea, Sports Mole's experts deliver their take on the crunch clash.

Ben Knapton, Site Coordinator - 'Dominik Szoboszlai for Player of the Year?'

Liverpool shouldn't be settling for a draw in this game against the worst Premier League form team across the last six games. Even Burnley have picked up a point in that time.

The first 14 minutes at Old Trafford, absolutely appalling. But there were some improvements in the second half. I think it's fair to say they were certainly gifted the second goal, maybe gifted the first slightly as well.

But it was a brilliant solo run from Dominik Szoboszlai, who could quietly be making a case for a PFA Player of the Year nomination. You think where Liverpool would be without Dominik Szoboszlai? Certainly nowhere near the Champions League spots.

He's got double figures in goals and assists this season, first Liverpool midfielder to do that since Steven Gerrard in 2013-14. There are some more concerns for Liverpool in this one; Isak picking up that injury before United was a hammer blow with Ekitike and Salah already out.

Looks like Alisson will miss this one as well, there was no Florian Wirtz in training on Wednesday, no Konate in training on Wednesday, so Liverpool could be missing 10 players for this game.

The injuries are piling up at the worst time for them. But they just need to get over the line against this incredibly poor Chelsea side. And no matter what hotchpotch attack they put out, I'm confident they will do that.

Matt Law, Football Editor - Arne Slot to stay at Liverpool?

I think it's a really interesting debate, the Slot future thing. I don't think he will leave, but it would not shock me at all if they reached a point where they just thought, 'We're going to go elsewhere.'

But when I saw Liverpool's team at Old Trafford, I just thought Manchester United have got to win this game. I appreciate that Liverpool have got a lot of injuries.

But Szoboszlai, if there is a player I'd take from Liverpool, he'd be the one. At a time that might have been Van Dijk, that might have been Salah, there's always a debate about who you would take from Liverpool. He's the player now that I would take in a heartbeat.

I think he's an unbelievable player and he's the only one that I really feared in that game from the Liverpool point of view. Wirtz hasn't been great, has he? He's been alright this season, and United, if they'd have thrown that away, that'd have been a big one for me.

Oliver Thomas, Senior Reporter - 'An absolute mess at Chelsea'

It's an absolute mess at the moment over there, I think that's the best way to describe it, both on and off the pitch really.

Calum McFarlane hasn't really got much to lose, but he'll be keen to make his mark in the first team and try and secure some form of European football for next season.

We've spoken before a little bit about the mess that Chelsea find themselves in as a club, whether the project under the current owners is the right one or not, whether that will be assessed in the summer.

For now the focus must solely be on securing European football because I think the ramifications of missing out on the top seven would be pretty huge for a club like Chelsea.

They've posted pre-tax losses of over £250m, been fined by UEFA for financial mismanagement, they would lose out on TV revenue, so missing out on European football would be huge and also they would possibly miss out on several top transfer targets.

They could then join rival clubs while current first team stars might want to leave if they don't qualify for Europe. So it's a really important moment now for Chelsea to end this torrid six-game winless run.

How they do that, I'm not sure. Everywhere across the pitch really needs to improve. They need to start scoring goals.

That Joao Pedro goal against Forest in that defeat was their only goal in these six defeats. And to finish the season now with Liverpool, Spurs and Sunderland, so not an easy run of fixtures on paper. They've also got that FA Cup final distraction in between that as well.

Now's the time for Chelsea to perform and step up and deliver when it matters most, starting with this big game against Liverpool, who they've actually beaten in the last two Premier League games. But a huge game for Chelsea now, as is every game for the rest of the season.