MATCH PREVIEW: Liverpool Ladies v Chelsea Ladies

 Tomorrow Liverpool Ladies return to action following the international break with a visit from Chelsea Ladies.

 During the break Liverpool midfielder Fara Williams picked up her 130th international cap for England, making her the most capped England player of all-time. The incredible achievement was marked with an impressive 4-0 victory for England over Sweden, Lucy Bronze also started for the Lionesses while Natasha Dowie and Gemma Bonner were unused substitutes.

 Liverpool will be without Martha Harris, Ellie Stewart and Katie Zelem again for this tie, the trio are currently representing England at the U20 World Cup in Canada. England began their campaign on Wednesday night, drawing 1-1 with South Korea in the opening group games. Harris grabbed the equaliser in the second half.

 The reds enjoyed a successful month in July, with 4 straight wins including brilliant wins over Durham WFC and Bristol Academy and hard-earned victories against Everton Ladies and Doncaster Belles. Last time out Liverpool were overpowered by a strong Manchester City side and will be looking to bounce back from that defeat with a win.

 Libby Stout put in another outstanding shift at the Etihad, pulling off save after save to keep the score to just 1-0. City's only goal of the game came after taking a horrid deflection to beat the Liverpool No.1.

 During the earlier wins in July, Liverpool's attack had really begun to gel following the injury crisis the reds faced before the mid-season break. A rampant second half in Durham saw Gemma Davison and Katie Zelem grab a brace each, Natasha Dowie score her second of the game and even captain Gemma Bonner popped up with a goal.

 A couple of weeks later Kate Longhurst scored her first goal of the season with a derby winning strike as Stout again was impressive to keep Everton striker Nikita Parris out.

 Chelsea Ladies currently sit 5 points ahead of Liverpool in 2nd place, making this a must-win game for the reds as they cannot afford to let that gap widen further.

 Chelsea come into this game on the back of 4 straight wins against London Bees, Arsenal Ladies, Bristol Academy and Manchester City. They have conceded in each of their last 3 victories against the WSL1 sides and scored a last minute winner against Man City, after City captain Steph Houghton had been forced off through injury.

 Winter signing Ji So-Yun is the blues top scorer on 7 goals in 12 appearances while forward Eni Aluko is on 6. Another transfer window arrival Rachel Williams scored her first goal for Chelsea as she netted a hat-trick in the win over London Bees.

 The last two games between these two sides have been closely fought affairs, last August Liverpool narrowly overcame Chelsea through the dominating Nicole Rolser while the teams played out a 0-0 back in April. Both clubs will be going all out for the 3 points here, Chelsea looking to extend the gap between the top 2 and the rest of the league, while Liverpool need the 3 points to pull themselves back up the table.

 The game kicks off at 6:30pm, Select Stadium, Widnes. Tickets are priced £5 adults, £2.50 concessions.

 Apologies that this preview is up later than usual, I have been away watching Washington Spirit play in the NWSL - you can read about my trip here!

 Thanks for reading

 @LFCladiesfans