Liverpool and Chelsea .. The first title of the season for Mohamed Salah or Kante?

Liverpool, led by Egyptian Mohamed Salah, is looking to secure its first title this season in its quest for a historic quartet, when it faces stubborn Chelsea with its French star Angolo Kante, on Sunday, in the English Football League Cup final.

German coach Jurgen Klopp's team is struggling on four fronts, after he succeeded in reducing the difference at the top of the league to three points with the leaders and defending champions Manchester City 12 stages before the end of the Premier League, while Chelsea is third, 10 points behind Liverpool, and has played a game less.

While Liverpool reached the first local final in the cup competitions since 2016, it stands on the doorstep of qualifying for the Champions League quarter-finals, after its victory over Inter Milan 2-0 at home in the first leg of the final price, and hosts Norwich in the fifth round of the FA Cup on Wednesday.

Klopp had awarded Liverpool the 2019 Champions League title and a long-awaited title for three decades in the league in 2020, but only continuing to achieve good results and titles puts his squad as the historic team in the seventies and eighties.

"We all know that people are happy now," said Klopp, who counts on his Egyptian scorers, Mohamed Salah and Senegal's Sadio Mane.

"But after 20 years, if you want to talk about this team, I wouldn't be surprised if there weren't more trophies and people said 'Yes they were good, but they should have won more'."

The former German Borussia Dortmund coach added, "This is why we must score more. The next opportunity is the weekend, it is against Chelsea and it will be difficult."

For Liverpool captain and midfielder Jordan Henderson, the victory at the famous Wembley Stadium will be an appropriate opportunity to prepare his team for additional victories in the final weeks of the season.

No English team has won the four available titles in one season, prompting Henderson to say, "This is a big moment. To win a title so early in the season gives you a lot of motivation."

And Henderson is the only one steadfast in the last local victory in the final of Liverpool, when he contributed in 2012 to defeating Cardiff and winning the League Cup.

"We want to use it as a platform to give us confidence and motivation at the end of the season," he added.

- Lukaku crisis - Liverpool misses Brazilian striker Roberto Firmino, who has been absent from the last two matches due to a thigh injury, which means that Portuguese Diogo Jota may participate after recovering from a ligament injury.

On the other hand, Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel once again faces the test of whether or not his Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku will be involved, after he sat on the bench during the last meeting against French Lille in the middle of the week in the Champions League.

Lukaku has scored just 10 goals since his record-breaking $131 million transfer from Inter last year, and he has expressed annoyance with the way Tuchel used his services early in the season.

The twenty-eight-year-old touched the ball only 7 times against Crystal Palace, the lowest player in the Premier League since 2003-2004, while his German colleague Kai Havertz excelled during the Lille match.

In front of the media, Tuchel attributes the reason for Lukaku's removal to his suffering from mental and physical exhaustion.

"He is an important player, there is a lot of focus on him, but if you go back, you will notice that he played a lot of games for us from the beginning," said the former Paris Saint-Germain coach.

He added, "When you play with Chelsea, you are convinced that the priority is for the team. So there are no negative feelings. We can only achieve our goals together."

And Tuchel can push international right-back Reece James, who has been absent since December due to a muscle injury in his thigh, and the identity of his goalkeeper is still uncertain between the main Senegalese Edouard Mendy and the Spaniard Kepa Arrisabalaga.

Since Tuchel took office in January 2021, Chelsea has shown remarkable efficiency in cup competitions, winning the European Champions League, the Club World Cup and the European Super Cup.

The West London team is looking for its first title in the League Cup since 2015, knowing that it returned and lost the 2019 final against Manchester City.

Liverpool holds the record with eight titles equally with Manchester City, compared to five titles for Aston Villa, Manchester United and Chelsea.

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