FA Cup: Wolves to face Chelsea in fifth round

The Reds have in fact been knocked out of both the EFL Cup and the FA Cup without Mane and are now fighting to keep their Champions League spot for next season.

This match at Anfield is a chance for Chelsea to confirm their position as Champions elect.

Conte’s men are now 10 points in front of Liverpool, who have won just once in eight games in all competitions this month.

Expected starting XI: Liverpool: Simon Mignolet; Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dejan Lovren, Joel Matip, James Milner; Georginio Wijnaldum, Jordan Henderson, Emre Can; Adam Lallana, Roberto Firmino, Philippe Coutinho. “We can not waste time or points any more”.

Rodgers said he signed the England global because he wanted “a team that was fast, dynamic, unpredictable, had power and pace” and that Sturridge “gave us all of that” before injuries derailed his career. For us to get any kind of success we knew we had to get the better of them.

Chelsea have an eight-point advantage over Arsenal, whom they play at the weekend, but Conte also played down the significance of the next few days.

The big news for Liverpool is that Sadio Mane has returned, after his penalty miss saw Senegal knocked out of the Africa Cup on Nations on Saturday. It’s therefore no surprise the English club sent a private jet to collect Mane after Senegal’s defeat, and the intention is to hurl the speedy winger straight into action against log leaders Chelsea tonight.

Rodgers, now in charge of Celtic, said: “Daniel will always get goals, he is that quality, but it’s about trying to fit it into the way your team works”.

Since they lost consecutive Premier League games to Liverpool and Arsenal in September, they have won 17 of 19 games in all competitions since but perhaps face a pivotal week as regards the title race with Tuesday’s game followed by a home match with Arsenal.

Another loss to a top six side will lead to scrutiny about Chelsea’s ability against the best teams.

Chelsea have been very fortunate with injuries all season, and Conte has all of his key names available. As long as we really believe in a long-term project while winning anything we can get in the short term – that’s what matters.

“Everyone can tell me that in 1998 we had exactly the same situation – League Cup semi-final, FA Cup fourth round, and then the league was like this”. “We need each little bit of concentration, not to try to be special, but do the right thing at the right moment”.

Conte insisted that Tuesday’s game would not end Liverpool’s season should the result go against them, but admitted defeat could do damage that would be hard to fix.