Arne Slot predicts that Chelsea will be consistent Premier League title contenders “in the coming years,” after acknowledging that they “dominated” his Liverpool side for significant portions of their match at Anfield.
Liverpool maintained their strong start to the 2024-25 season with a 2-1 victory over Chelsea, managed by Enzo Maresca, on Sunday.
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Nicolas Jackson briefly revived Chelsea’s hopes by equalizing after Mohamed Salah’s first-half penalty, but Curtis Jones secured the win for Liverpool shortly after.. .Continue Reading
Despite the defeat, Slot was impressed with Chelsea’s performance and believes they have the potential to challenge for the title regularly in the near future.
Last season, Chelsea finished sixth under Mauricio Pochettino and were expected to face more struggles this term under new manager Maresca, who previously led Leicester City.
However, Chelsea had only lost once in seven matches prior to their Anfield defeat, giving the west London club optimism of finishing in the top four and returning to the Champions League.
When asked about Chelsea ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League clash against RB Leipzig on Wednesday, Slot said: ‘I don’t think we outplayed Chelsea, we certainly didn’t.
‘I think they were more dominant than us with the ball. In an ideal world I would have seen us dominate the complete game like we did in so many other games.
‘We are not there yet but the good thing about this team and the result was that if you face a team like Chelsea, you see a team that is fighting for every centimetre and for every moment and that is what we did.
‘I’m hoping in the future, hopefully in the near future, that when we play a game like this we are more dominant than we were against Chelsea. But that probably says a lot about Chelsea as well.
‘A lot of people in England were making fun of Chelsea earlier in the season for investing so much money and bringing in all these players that weren’t in the squad but in my opinion they have done really well in the last two of three years bringing so many talented players in.
‘They have such a strong squad with such a good manager that they will be up there in the coming years. That is my opinion, let’s see if I am right.’
Speaking after the 2-1 win, Slot said Chelsea had been Liverpool’s toughest opponent so far this campaign.
The Dutchman said: ‘Many other games were hard but this might have been the hardest maybe because of the amount of quality players they have and the structure they have.
‘We had to fight really hard to get this one over the line. We defended so strong through the whole team. There was incredible work-rate.
‘The game became difficult for us because there were a few decisions in my opinion that didn’t go for us, the most crucial was when we thought we had the penalty before half time.
‘To go 2-0 before half time would make a massive difference from 1-0. Then we conceded but we stepped up again and scored the second.
‘The better the teams you face the more you need it [fight]. In the Premier League there are so many good teams so if you want to win at least you need to fight and then hopefully the individuals can make the difference.
‘It helps if you play against a Chelsea, it is a big game and everyone feels it. We felt it and the fans felt it because they were there for us today. We showed up, that was the most important thing.’
Chelsea, currently sixth in the Premier League, will look to return to winning ways on Thursday when they face Panathinaikos in the UEFA Europa Conference League.
