'It's about time' - Chelsea star issues warning to Liverpool ahead of Carabao Cup final

Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell has warned Liverpool that 'it's about time' that his side were triumphant in a cup final after suffering three defeats.

Chilwell, 27, is one of the more senior figures in the Chelsea squad and has been a part of the Champions League, Super Cup and Club World Cup successes of years gone by, but he has also tasted defeat in the both domestic cup finals in 2022 to Liverpool, as well as losing to his former side Leicester a year prior.

All three defeats were particularly heart-breaking as well; Jurgen Klopp's side won on penalties on both occasions and Leicester scraped a tight one-goal win and he saw a last-minute equaliser disallowed for offside in which he was off by a matter of inches. However, time time around, he is determined to end the losing streak at Wembley against an injury-ridden Liverpool.

"The feeling when you lift a trophy; there's nothing like it." He told the official Carabao Cup channel. "It's literally what you work at from such a young age to then being able to lift the biggest trophies. Domestically, I haven't won a trophy yet and I know these opportunities are difficult to come by, they don't come around often so when they do you really have to snatch it and, like I said, three times in a domestic cup final and three losses so I think it's time that we won one."

As it stands, Liverpool are set to be without a whole host of first-team figures; Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Thiago, Joel Matip, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones and Diogo Jota are all ruled out of action which will certainly make things difficult for Klopp at Wembley. However, Chelsea are also missing several first-team figures such as Reece James, Robin Sanchez, Wesley Fofana, Thiago Silva, Romeo Lavia, Marc Cucurella, Carney Chukwuemeka and Benoit Badiashile.

The two sides met as recently as three weeks ago as they dominated Chelsea at Anfield but they will be missing four players from the line-up that triumphed so impressively in the Premier League. However, this time they are boosted by the return of Mohamed Salah to the starting line-up who has seven goal contributions (four goals, three assists) against his former side in a Liverpool shirt.