Liverpool vs Chelsea: A Crucial Clash for Champions League Qualification
Arne Slot walked into the media room at Anfield with a season to salvage and a squad slowly piecing itself back together. Liverpool face Chelsea on Saturday lunchtime in what was once billed as a straight shootout for the Champions League. Now, with Chelsea in freefall after six successive defeats, it looks more like Liverpool’s chance to finally nail down their place at Europe’s top table.
Slot, though, was in no mood to treat it as a formality.
Injuries: key men edging back
The headline news came early. Alexander-Arnold is back on the grass.
“Alex trained with us again yesterday for the first time. All good,” Slot confirmed. “He did parts of it, hopefully he can do parts or everything today and we see how much we are going to use him.”
For a side that has too often lacked control in key moments, the prospect of their playmaker from right-back returning is significant.
Behind him, there was movement in goal. “Alisson not yet,” Slot said, drawing a clear line on the Brazilian’s status. “Giorgi today for first time.” Mamardashvili’s first involvement back with the group offers another option, but not an immediate solution.
Mohamed Salah is almost there too. “Mo is very very close like Ali,” Slot revealed, underlining how tight the margins are with two of his biggest stars.
There were smaller issues to clear up. Ibrahima Konaté missed Wednesday’s session for personal reasons but has since trained. Florian Wirtz – unwell earlier in the week – is also back. The group, at last, is starting to look like a squad rather than a patchwork.
Conor Bradley remains a longer-term case. “In the rehab it’s always important if some steps go well,” Slot explained. “It’s really difficult in the stage he’s in now to predict when he will be back. He’s still inside and working really hard but he is quite far away from going outside, that makes it quite complicated to tell.”
No promises, no timelines. Just hard work behind closed doors.
A season that won’t be forgiven easily
Slot knows three wins to close out the league campaign won’t wash away what has gone before.
“This season has gone in a way that even if we have three wins and positive performances, I don’t think anyone will be positive about the season,” he admitted. “It’s important we get at least one win over the line which might be enough.”
Enough for the Champions League, not enough for the court of public opinion.
“We are trying to do it in the best possible way, performance-wise. The positive thing is a few of the players who can be really important for us are either coming back at the weekend or after the weekend. That will help us. Three wins won’t silence the criticism. Therefore we need to have a much longer run of results and performances.”
He knows where the bar sits at Anfield. He also knows this league campaign has fallen short of it.
“The performance clearly in the Premier League we didn’t pick up the points we should have. We haven’t had a very good season in the Premier League but we’ve played better and not got the points we should have,” he said. In Europe, the story has felt different. “In the Champions League we played to our standard. Over two games, no club has been able to beat PSG in the last two years. We could have gone close at Anfield if VAR hadn’t overturned an award (of a penalty) it usually doesn’t.”
The frustration is obvious: performances without points, dominance without the finish.
Vulnerable moments, missing goals
Slot didn’t hide from Liverpool’s flaws, particularly without the ball.
“In moments we have been vulnerable at counter-attacks. Not like we’ve conceded loads. At Manchester we conceded two. But that’s not the only thing we’ve been vulnerable at. There are too many we have been at moments,” he said.
The diagnosis quickly turned to the other end of the pitch.
“It would help if we scored more goals. Easier to control a game at 1-0 up than 1-0 down or 1-1. It’s very clear and obvious where we have to improve, it’s something we’ve tried to address throughout the season with ups and downs and will be something we will look at in the summer, first in the market then the training ground.”
Score first, control the game, protect yourself from the chaos. The blueprint is simple. Liverpool haven’t executed it often enough.
Mentality, not mileage
The question of belief inevitably surfaced. So many setbacks. So many tight games turned the wrong way.
“It always weighs heavy on players if you lose more games than you would want, especially at a club like this,” Slot said. “These players are used to winning.”
But he pushed back on the idea that age or a changing core has eroded their steel.
“There’s a difference between bonding and mentality,” he explained. “When it comes to bonding it makes sense players who have had 6, 7, 8 years together have stronger than new players coming together.”
The chemistry might not yet match the era that delivered the Champions League and a 99-point Premier League season, but he refused to accept that youth or turnover equals softness.
“Mentality, we have shown many times the mentality to come back into the game such as last Sunday. When we were at 2-2 we felt we deserved to get a third goal but it didn’t happen. For me mentality has nothing to do with age. When Mo was 26 and these players were in their prime they won CL and got PL with 99 points.”
He pointed to PSG as a modern example. “Recently we have quite good example of players who aren’t that old at PSG but have the standards to win a game with 11 players attacking and defending together. It’s more about the personality of the player than the age. Of course you can inject it in the transfer market but we have a lot of players who have the right mentality to play for this club.”
The bond will grow. The mentality, he insists, is already there.
Another transition on the horizon
The word “transition” has hung over Liverpool for two seasons. Slot didn’t duck it.
“I’m only looking forward to it so I’m not worried at all,” he said when asked about another summer of change. “As I looked forward to working with these players two years ago and one year ago. As a manager you’re never worried, you’re just looking forward to working with players.”
He expects movement, but not upheaval. “There will probably be another little transition but not as drastic as last year. One player probably replaced by Kostas Tsimikas who is coming back off loan.”
The message was clear: tweaks, not a tear-down. Evolution rather than revolution.
Chelsea test and the run-in
On Saturday, attention turns to Chelsea, a side that has lurched from one idea to another this season but still carries serious individual threat.
“If our information is correct then they will have a few players back to make them stronger. That will be massive for them,” Slot said. “Always a difficult game for both teams. Lot of very good individual players, let’s hope we have a very good team performance as well.”
He sees a clearer identity now under their current coach. “All managers have their own idea about football, they’ve had three this season. Current manager is closer to what Maresca usually did, so has a very clear identity how they play. Clear what to expect. Usually three centre-backs.”
Predictable shape, unpredictable talent. Liverpool know the pattern; they must handle the details.
The target for the final three league games is non-negotiable.
“Usually goes hand in hand, good performance leads to results. The first and main aim is to qualify for the Champions League and we have shown this season we need a good performance to get results,” Slot said.
The cruel twist has been the games where performance didn’t pay.
“The opposite has happened where we’ve had good performances and not a good result, and we’ve not often had a bad performance and a good result. We usually need a good performance to win a game.”
So the task is simple, if not easy: perform, and keep performing. Chelsea at Anfield, penultimate home game of the season, a chance to lock in Champions League football and quieten, if not silence, the noise.
The injuries are easing, the stakes are clear. Now Liverpool must decide what kind of finish this troubled season deserves.
