Chelsea head coach Antonio Conte wants his Premier League leaders to land a blow on Liverpool’s title hopes on Tuesday night.
Liverpool have inflicted one of Chelsea‘s three league losses this season, winning 2-1 at Stamford Bridge in September.
But Jurgen Klopp‘s men have one win in eight games this month and are 10 points behind the Blues.
Conte pointed to the fact 15 games remain after their trip to Anfield, saying “the result doesn’t decide the season of Chelsea or Liverpool tomorrow.”
But he believes the Reds may find it too difficult to respond from defeat in the remaining 15 games. “It could be a hard hit mentally for them,” Conte said.
“It’s important to win this type of game, increase you confidence, take three points from a rival.
“I hope to change the result if you compare the first game and the first part of the season.”
Chelsea followed up the loss to Liverpool with a Premier League defeat at Arsenal, who visit Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
Conte added: “It’s a very important week, but also I know after two of these games we have 14 games to finish the championship.
“The results are important, but the championship doesn’t finish after these two games.”
Conte’s switch to a 3-4-3 formation after the Arsenal loss was the catalyst for a 13-match winning run in the Premier League, ended at Tottenham on January 4.
“Honestly, I think we are a different team, not Liverpool. I think that we grew a lot,” Conte added.
“After the game (against Liverpool) I said ‘today we faced a great team, a really great team, but today we are not a team. Only through work we can improve to become a team’. I think it happened.
“We grew a lot and for this reason now we are top of the table.
“It’s incredible this, because it’s not easy to have two defeats against Liverpool and Arsenal and to find the strength to start and to arrive top of the table and to have 13 wins in a row.”
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