Kepa in, Christensen out, Lukaku decision made: Predicted Chelsea side vs Liverpool

In the mind of Thomas Tuchel, Chelsea reaching the Carabao Cup final is an achievement in itself. But make no mistake, the Blues head coach is desperate for his side to overcome Liverpool this afternoon.

That is not only because victory will ensure Chelsea claim the fourth trophy of his tenure, which has only just hit the 13-month mark. It's also because it will banish the ghost of last season's FA Cup final at Wembley which the Blues lost 1-0 to Leicester City.

“We learn from every defeat and experience," Tuchel said ahead today's final. "First of all, we arrived in that final and we lost a very close match 1-0 to a strong and competitive Leicester side. It wasn’t what we expected and what we wanted, but there are always two teams involved in every final.

“Champions League final, cup finals, every final, there are two parties involved and we regard very quickly the one that doesn’t win the match as the loser.

"But if you look at what it takes to reach a final…look at the [Australian] Grand Slam final between (Rafa) Nadal and (Daniil) Medvedev, who is the guy to raise the hand and say Medvedev is a loser after five-and-a-half hours of out-of-this-world tennis.

“So we are very quick to judge and are very quick to say what he has to learn. Maybe he learnt he is on the level, that he has what it takes, and at some point, he needs a little bit of luck.

“This is the same for us [in the Carabao Cup final]. We will enjoy it to a certain degree but the tension will grow so you may not see it in all our faces, we may not be smiling all the way because we are competitive and want to win. We want to put our teeth into this match and the task of beating Liverpool.

“We want it, we want it absolutely, and from there we trust. Last