CHELSEA ARE FAVOURITES

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard has said that Chelsea are the favourites to lift the FA Cup this season.

Chelsea and Liverpool will be competing in the FA Cup final on Saturday. Liverpool rested a number of players for the match against Fulham with one eye on the FA Cup final. Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez were the big names who missed the 1-0 defeat at the hands of Fulham.

Following the defeat, Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard said that Chelsea will certainly come into the match knowing that they are the favourites to win the FA Cup.

This certainly seems to be a mind game from the Liverpool captain. Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish has not lost against Chelsea in 13 attempts both as a player and manager. One can certainly say that Kenny Dalglish has the lucky charm against Chelsea.

However, Chelsea do come into the match on the back of the 6-1 drubbing against QPR during the weekend. Fernando Torres showed that he is getting back to his old self after scoring a wonderful hat-trick against QPR. Liverpool too difficult Norwich 3-0 during the weekend with Luis Suarez scoring his first hat-trick for the club. Yet, Gerrard says that Chelsea are the favourites.

"Whenever we've played them we've never gone into these contests lacking belief. We've definitely held our own, if not got the better of them. I won't deny that it's going to be difficult, they've shown some very good form under Di Matteo, so they are probably slight favourites," added Gerrard.

Moreover, Chelsea will be playing Newcastle United on Wednesday night knowing that they must win the game in order to realistically finish within the top four. Hence, Chelsea interim manager Roberto di Matteo is unlikely to rest players for the match against Newcastle, although he may protect some of the key players.