Chelsea and Liverpool sweating fitness of main strikers Diego Costa and Christian Benteke, respectively, ahead of weekend clash

With every passing hour and every passing moment, Saturday high noon looms ever closer, ever larger, ever scarier.  Doomsday.  Fire.  Brimstone.  Moupocalypse.  Or not.  And certainly not if we win.  Sadly, the way things seem at the moment, we probably couldn't even beat lower league opposition like Sheffied Wednesday or Middlesbrough.  What's that?  Arsenal and Manchester United couldn't either?  Football is weird.

Liverpool did win their League Cup match against AFC Bournemouth, but they did so without Christian Benteke who suffered some sort of knee injury in last weekend's draw against Southampton.  While earlier reports had it down as "potentially serious" including ligament damage, after Wednesday's match, Jurgen Klopp did not seem as concerned.

"I think Christian will be fit on Saturday. He had little problems and with our ‘striker situation’ we can’t take a risk. Divock played again [tonight] and he did well – he worked really hard. But I think Christian will be back."

-Jurgen Klopp; source: Liverpool FC

Klopp sounded much less optimistic about Daniel Sturridge's chances.  The Liverpool manager did get some pretty good play out of Roberto Firmino in support of the far less impressive Divock Origi against Bournemouth, so perhaps the ex-Chelsea man's absence won't be felt as keenly as Benteke's would be this weekend.

And speaking of absences keenly felt, there's still no word on Diego Costa's status for the weekend showdown against his old pals Martin Skrtel and Emre Can.

Jose Mourinho will speak with Chelsea medical staff on Thursday before deciding whether Diego Costa is fit enough to face Liverpool after damaging his ribs against Stoke City.

-source: Mail

While that sounds like an obvious move, the fact (well, "fact") that there is a discussion to be had should mean that the injury might not be too serious.  And if there's one thing we know about Diego, it's that if he can walk or there are copious quantities of horse placenta available, he will want to play.