Chelsea fan Paul Merson’s prediction at kick-off backfired spectacularly as Liverpool win Carabao Cup

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Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool secured a stunning 1-0 extra-time win over Chelsea in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley on Sunday.

Only a number of weeks ago, Liverpool thrashed their struggling rivals in the Premier League, but a lot has changed since then, including the injuries suffered by the Merseyside club.

That resulted in many people, including Paul Merson, changing their opinions on what the result was going to be for this showpiece event.

More than 24 hours before the match, he was backing Chelsea to win if Liverpool were going to be without Mohamed Salah and Darwin Nunez.

But then, just before kick-off, the boyhood Chelsea fan saw the teams and then posted his prediction on Twitter, which has since gone spectacularly wrong.

The Sky Sports pundit claimed that he is ‘very confident’ in a Chelsea win after looking at the teams put out by Mauricio Pochettino and Jurgen Klopp, respectively.

As mentioned, the Reds had their injury issues, with Mohamed Salah, Darwin Nunez, Diogo Jota, Thiago Alcantara, Dominik Szoboszlai, Curtis Jones, Joel Matip and Trent Alexander-Arnold all missing.

It was made even worse when Ryan Gravenberch was taken off on a stretcher in the first half, after a very questionable tackle from Moises Caicedo.

Despite all of that, and Jurgen Klopp still throwing on the kids during the game, it all resulted in Virgil van Dijk sealing the win in stoppage time for the Reds, which surely leaves Paul Merson with egg on his face.

Paul Merson’s prediction before Liverpool beat Chelsea 

Chelsea and Liverpool are in different worlds

Come next season, Liverpool will have a new manager, and many of the fans are hoping it’s Bayer Leverkusen’s high-flying coach, Xabi Alonso.

But Chelsea could also be on the lookout for a new coach given the road Mauricio Pochettino is going down because that was a very damaging defeat for him.

Both Chelsea and Liverpool are in different worlds right now. The London club fear another bottom-half finish, whilst those at Anfield could end the season with four trophies.

Even if the unthinkable doesn’t happen, at least, for now, they have won the first trophy of the season and set the ball rolling for these coming months.