Chelsea v Liverpool Preview: Head To Head Player Stats

Ahead of this weekend’s FA Cup final between Chelsea and Liverpool, Castrol EDGE performance data compares some of the teams’ key players.

On Saturday, two of the Premier League’s top goalkeepers will be going head to head, with very little between them this season in terms of performance.

Liverpool’s Spanish glovesman, Pepe Reina, slightly edges things, posting a 69% saves to shots rate and registering 12 clean sheets so far, compared to Petr Cech’s 68% save rate and his haul of 10 clean sheets. However, interestingly, in the overall rankings in the top division for saves to shots rates, Reina only ranks in 10^th place while Cech is 13^th.

Petr Cech & José Reina – Premier League 2011/12

Two of England’s midfield stalwarts will also go toe to toe in the centre of the pitch on Saturday, with both Chelsea’ Frank Lampard and Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard also hoping to impress new England manager Roy Hodgson on this high-profile occasion.

Blues’ star Lampard has played significantly more games this season than Gerrard. However, even in terms of minutes per goal as well as shooting accuracy and conversion rates, the former West Ham man comes out on top, netting an impressive 11 goals this season, more than any other central midfielder in the Premier League.

Creatively, the Blues’ dynamo has also been the more impressive of the two, with five assists to his name this season compared to Gerrard’s two.

Whichever of these two players has the better of things in midfield on Saturday could be key to the destination of the FA Cup trophy.

Frank Lampard & Steven Gerrard – Premier League 2011/12

Fernando Torres seems to have finally rediscovered his shooting boots for Chelsea, netting the vital goal against Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final second-leg game at the Nou Camp and then following that up with a hat-trick against QPR in the league.

Despite the Spaniard’s poor start to the season, he still compares favourably to Liverpool’s struggling striker, Andy Carroll. The former Newcastle star’s rate of a goal every 471 minutes is significantly inferior to Torres’ figure of a goal every 299 minutes.

Torres has also provided far more assists than his fellow big-money buy at Liverpool, setting up four goals compared to Carroll’s haul of just one. However, the Liverpool does come out on top against Torres in terms of his rate of chances created.

Fernando Torres & Andy Carroll – Premier League 2011/12

While Liverpool boss Kenny Dalglish has found himself under a lot of pressure this season due to a worryingly large number of disappointing results, Chelsea boss Roberto Di Matteo has made the most of his chance in the hot seat at Stamford Bridge. The Italian has been particularly successful in cup competitions since taking over in a caretaker role, winning seven of his eight cup games, drawing the other.

Roberto Di Matteo – Cup Competitions – 2011/12

 Also see: 2012 FA Cup Final: Chelsea v Liverpool Talking Points