Sunday Football Tips: Money on Mane at Wembley

Chelsea v Liverpool
Carabao Cup final
Sunday 27 February 16:30 kick-off
Live on Sky Sport

It’s Carabao Cup final day on Sunday so it’s only right that we head off to Wembley for our column today and select a props bet winner for Chelsea v Liverpool.

There’s plenty to go at, with these two teams having plenty of recent history in big games, funnily enough starting back in this very competition in 2005 when Jose Mourinho’s Blues beat Rafa Benitez’s Reds in the then Carling Cup final in Cardiff.

They’ve been best of enemies ever since so even if this is regarded as the least important piece of silverware on offer this season, Chelsea v Liverpool games are always important.

Chelsea of course have a wealth of talent available, with Thomas Tuchel even being allowed the luxury of benching £100m man Romelu Lukaku recently and still getting results.

Picking Tuchel’s line-up for Wembley involves a bit of guesswork.

It all comes down to this.

See you in the morning!#EFL | #CarabaoCupFinal pic.twitter.com/O0RZ4bTLDd

— Carabao Cup (@Carabao_Cup) February 26, 2022

Jurgen Klopp has spent plenty of money in a more gradual manner in his time at Anfield, but it’s been spent wisely for the most part and he’s now assembled a deeper squad than ever before.

Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz are fine additions up front and the newest addition of all Diaz could get a start at Wembley given Roberto Firmino is out and Jota doubtful.

While Mohamed Salah will grab the headline, but we’re looking instead at Liverpool’s faithful servant Sadio Mane, who has a decent record against the Blues.

Mane is even more of an attractive option if Jota is out injured and he plays in am ore central role, where I think he can really cause Chelsea’s centre backs problems.

A nice stat here is that in three of the last four games Mane has scored in against Chelsea, he’s bagged the opening goal of the game – so the 11/2 OddsBoost on the Sportbook for him scoring first is one for the shortlist.

We’re looking for a bit more here though, so along with backing Mane to score we’re throwing in a yellow card for the Senegal star as well to form a nice Bet Builder double.

Mane has six goals in 15 games for Liverpool against Chelsea, while he also got two in four for Southampton as well.

He’s also been booked five times in his career against Chelsea, and in the last meeting he saw yellow and scored a goal all in the opening 10 minutes!

With high stakes and a tough Chelsea defence to go up against, Mane is always likely to get his name in the book but also always likely to find the back of the net.

Even playing out on the left in his usual position Mane’s is a good play but even more so if he gets that central role. Either way it’s a big return.

Read Mark O’Haire’s match preview for Chelsea v Liverpool.

See also our three Bet Builder specials for the Carabao Cup final.