The penultimate away league game of the season takes the Blues north one last time. It may be unusual for this fixture to pit first against second, but for the third season in succession and fourth time in the last five years, Chelsea's visit to Liverpool has been in at the business end of the season. In that time, we have always seemed in the hunt for a title or trophy at his time of year. Liverpool, until now, not so much.

The last time the Blues visited Anfield, Luis Suarez could not stop himself biting Branislav Ivanovic's arm and (with the incident undetected by officials) was allowed to play on, scoring a late, late equaliser. Happily the Serbian, who returns after suspension this weekend, was not significantly harmed and hit the winner in the Europa League final a few weeks later.

This week former Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow described the relationship with Chelsea as a 'deadly rivalry'. The choice of adjective might be injudicious but there are definite parallels with past clashes, especially 2005, when Chelsea played Champions League semi-final games against the Reds either side of winning the Premier League at Bolton.

Equally poignantly, Chelsea's League Cup success in 2004/05 over the Reds was sandwiched between two unforgettable games against Barcelona in the Champions League. Again the core personnel were the same over the three matches. The Blues' 3-2 final victory was also testament to Mourinho's brilliance with substitutions.

Steven Gerrard, who later admitted to wanting a move to Stamford Bridge, set the Chelsea ball rolling with an own-goal equaliser, but it was Mateja Kezman who netted the winner, to the deliver the Special One's first trophy in this country.

Chelsea also had much the better of other massive matches such as late in the season in 2004, which secured a vital Champions League qualifying place, the 2010 meeting that helped decide the title, and the 2012 FA Cup triumph that formed a double success with the Champions League.

Yet there is often a price to pay for success and by reaching the semi-finals yet again in Europe Chelsea have played 13 games more than Liverpool this season.

We have the best home form in the top flight but away performances have produced a different story. Unburdened by 'famous European nights' this campaign, Liverpool have the third best record on their own soil behind Manchester City, whom Chelsea famously beat at the Etihad in February.

It is fair to say the wonderful travelling Chelsea fans may be a little hoarse after their great support of the team at Tuesday night's Champions League semi-final. The bigger problem is the state of the team, many of whom returned home from the Vicente Calderon battered and banned.

Back in 2005 Mourinho picked a consistent team in all three games - a luxury unavailable to him this weekend. Petr Cech is out for several months with an anterior dislocation of the shoulder. John Terry, arguably the Blues' player of the season, suffered a foot injury that will keep him out for an unspecified period. Ramires begins a four-game suspension having accepted a charge following an incident in the Sunderland game.

Mourinho will have to draw on his wider first team squad, and possibly more of the younger, less familiar men who helped the Blues to finish top of the U21 Premier League (above Liverpool) and reach the under-18 FA Youth Cup final for a third successive season.

As a former Academy and Reserve team coach between 2004 and 2008, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers knows the strength of the set-up at Cobham, though the first success came under one of his successors, Dermot Drummy, in the 2010 Youth Cup.

On the bench in Madrid were versatile defenders Nathan Ake (with three first team appearances) and Tomas Kalas(one), and Marco van Ginkel (four), the promising central midfielder who tore his anterior cruciate ligament in September.

Other youths whose performances have grabbed the eye include two-footed playmaker Lewis Baker (one senior appearance), powerful midfielder Ruben Loftus-Cheek and stylish centre-back Andreas Christensen.

Whoever does play will have a decent record to defend: Chelsea have been defeated just once by a top-eight side in the league this season, taking all six points from Man City, four from Manchester United, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur and, so far, three from Liverpool.

Never the less the sense that the planets are aligning for Liverpool to win their first title since the pass-back rule was introduced in 1992 has been compelling, even before Chelsea's latest misfortunes.

They have had few serious injuries to their key personnel and have been awarded 12 penalties this season — five more than rivals Chelsea and City (nine of them away from Anfield).

However they are far from infallible. Their goals tally is formidable and yet they have conceded more goals than Crystal Palace or Hull City. When Liverpool play 'attack versus defence' in training the ghost of Bill Shankly must draw his curtains.

- Match preview by chelseafc.com