Pat Nevin says Chelsea losing N'Golo Kante and Antonio Rudiger is similar to Liverpool without Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah.

Kante has missed most of the season with injury, but made his return in Sunday's 2-1 loss to the Reds at Stamford Bridge, while Rudiger remains sidelined.

And former Blues winger Nevin thinks their absence has impacted the team heavily, just as the loss of van Dijk and Salah would hinder Jurgen Klopp's side.

He wrote on the club's website: "N'Golo and Toni Rudiger would have been handy to call on obviously but when you add Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ruben Loftus-Cheek, it just underlines how harsh it has been.

"Look at Liverpool for example, they seem to go close to season after season with scarcely a long-term injury to any of their recognised starting 11 players.

"The analogy would be if you took Liverpool's best defender Van Dijk out of the team the way Rudiger has missed the start with us, and then removed their world-class player Mo Salah like we have had to do without Kante.

"What sort of difference do you think it would make to their team? I just cannot wait until Frank has every single one of his top players fit, available and on form and I bet he can't too."