Chelsea – Liverpool combined XI

Centre-back: David Luiz

A few eyebrows were raised (most of them belonging to the English football pundits who criticised him so much during his original run with the Blues) when Chelsea forked out more than £30M to bring David Luiz back to Stamford Bridge in the summer, but his steady performances at the heart of their defence – aided, in part, by the protection afforded to him by midfield duo Matic and Kante, admittedly – have helped silence many of those dissenting voices.

In his first spell in England, Luiz was regarded by many as a figure of derision by most, his proclivity for bringing the ball out of defence, so it was said, often leaving his teammates exposed at the back. His time at Paris Saint Germain – perhaps coupled with a wake up call in the World Cup in 2014 when the team of which he was a key part was smashed 7-1 by Germany in the semi-finals – appears to have helped him add some much-needed maturity to his game.

An accomplished ball-player with a fiercely competitive streak (and the ability to bring out the devil inside Sergio Aguero), Luiz’s closest Liverpool counterpart is probably Dejan Lovren, who is steadily improving under the guidance of Klopp and, alongside Matip, forging a centre-back partnership with plenty of potential. Equally, he’s still yet to really justify the money Brendan Rodgers spent to take him to Anfield in 2014, and this one is, therefore, a fairly straight-forward choice – for the time being, at least.