Chelsea will be watching their Premier League rivals Liverpool extremely closely in the coming weeks and months as both sides look to make an immediate jump back into the Champions League. The two sides that finished second and third last year have had the biggest drop-off of any team in the league this season.
Part of Liverpool's massive difference is genuine overperformance and above-par, unsustainable excellence last year, that said, their tally of 67 points would only have been enough to scrape into the top four on three occasions since 2015.
Chelsea, on the other hand, have spent more than every other team worldwide but have had the worst pound-for-pound season in league history. Their drop is less to do with unsustainable excellence and more short-term mismanagement mixed with long-term planning neglect.
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Both sides have been tipped to be right up there again next year, though. The maths just doesn't equate anymore if this is the case. There are now at least seven sides that will all be heading into the season with the goal of finishing fourth and higher. Nearly half the teams involved will be disappointed.
Meanwhile Brighton and Aston Villa are on the up as well. It's the most competitive that this part of the table has ever been. Chelsea and Liverpool have already taken steps to make bigger leaps than can be kept up with. The Blues have appointed Mauricio Pochettino as head coach and have widescale transfer plans to reshape the squad.
The Reds, on the other hand, have already started their overhaul with several players being allowed to leave for free and a new sporting director being appointed. In a statement, they confirmed that Jorg Schmadtke had joined the club, filling in for Julian Ward and the ever-impressive Michael Edwards.
They are big shoes to fill but Liverpool's recruitment was the one thing, in alignment with Jurgen Klopp's arrival, that fast-tracked them back to the top of the league battle. For Chelsea, Schmadtke's incoming poses some questions as to how they carry out their summer business.
The clubs have similar interests heading into the window with central midfield a priority position. They have shown mirroring admiration and desires to sign Declan Rice in the past whilst Klopp's men are also in the running to bring Mason Mount away from his boyhood club.
Elsewhere, Moises Caicedo has been a previous target for the Reds, just like Enzo Fernandez was as well. They look set to be fishing in the same market in the coming months but one place that Chelsea have a potential advantage is in the race to sign Victor Osimhen.
Liverpool are already well stocked in the attacking department but few clubs would turn their noses up at one of the best forward prospects in the world. Schmadtke has bad experiences with the Nigerian, however.
“It wasn’t a good move, in hindsight,” Schmadtke told Kicker about allowing a teenage Osimhen to leave Wolfsburg for just £3m ($3.7m). “When I came, he was limping and running in circles. I was told that the strikers we had weren’t good enough. The most important lesson is that you have to be patient with some transfers.”
Lille then picked him up quickly from Belgium for around £10.4m ($13m). Three years on and he has a £150m ($187.9m) price tag that very few can match. Chelsea are one of the teams looking to do so. For once this summer, it looks like they won't have to worry about Liverpool being on their tail.
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