Chelsea star Zouma fires warning to Liverpool ahead of Premier League showdown

Kurt Zouma has warned Chelsea are ready to “hurt” Liverpool in this season’s title race.

Zouma is convinced the Blues can challenge for the Premier League and believes Timo Werner can help Chelsea ’s forward line become as prolific as Liverpool trio Mo Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane.

Chelsea go head-to-head with reigning champions Liverpool at Stamford Bridge on Sunday and Frank Lampard’s men are determined to send out a message of intent.

Zouma said: “They have a great front three, but we also have our weapons. We can hurt them. It will be a great game to watch.

“Last season Liverpool completely dominated the season, they had a great run of wins. They hardly lost. But this is another year. Everybody starts from zero. We will se what we can do.”

Liverpool will go to Stamford Bridge on Sunday with some extra spice in the game after Jurgen Klopp took a sideswipe at Chelsea’s summer spending after claiming his club took a different approach to transfers this summer to clubs “owned by countries and oligarchs.”

Chelsea have splashed out in excess of £200m on the likes of Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Hakim Ziyech and Thiago Silva while they are also ready to strike a £20m deal for Rennes keeper Edouard Mendy to try and compete with struggling No1 Kepa Arrizabalaga.

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But Zouma insists that Chelsea’s new signings do not have anything to prove and has backed £48m striker Werner to be as effective in the Premier League as he was in Germany and challenge for the Golden Boot this season.

Zouma added: “He’s a top scorer. He’s been scoring goals for fun in the German league. That’s why he has come here, to show himself in the Premier League. I think he can do it. He has the ability and he’s so quick.

“The players that came here are going to bring something new to the team. Kai started great, defensively he helped us a lot. They obviously need to get used to the shape. As soon as everyone is fully fit they will bring a lot of things to the team.

“It’s very exciting. But on the pitch will tell us what we can do. We need to work hard in training. But we have a great team. We don’t need to get too excited. We just need to be ready and keep the confidence high.”

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