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The best beginning to a reign made by any Liverpool manager is only a start. Arne Slot has found ways of deflecting the compliments his immediate impact at Anfield has generated. He has referenced the reality that some of his predecessors’ medal collections are sufficiently impressive that they do not need to be judged by their first 10 games or an early-season status as league leaders. He has cited the relatively kind fixture list: Liverpool have played the teams currently occupying 17th, 11th, 14th, 10th, 13th, 20th and 18th places. Their Carabao Cup win was against the club in 12th. Their Champions League victories were against the sides sitting sixth and 13th respectively in Serie A.
And now it gets harder. Liverpool’s next month amounts to a barometer of their prospects, a test of whether they are title challengers, potential Champions League winners, able to retain the Carabao Cup that proved Jurgen Klopp’s last trophy. It is Chelsea, RB Leipzig, Arsenal, Brighton, Brighton again, Bayer Leverkusen and Aston Villa, a seven-game stretch that could derail Liverpool’s ambitions or serve as a springboard to a challenge on multiple fronts.
For Slot, it amounts to a voyage of discovery. Have his first 10 games given him a clear idea of what Liverpool can achieve or is he still trying to find out himself? “The last,” he replied. It is why Chelsea’s visit on Sunday assumes such a significance. “They got a lot of criticism in recent years but if you look now they are already a big threat for the next three or four years,” he said. Chelsea, he believes, are not merely contenders for third or fourth place. “Oh, I would maybe even see them higher,” Slot said.
They represent contrasting models, the continuity at Anfield where, despite the seismic nature of Klopp’s departure, the change on the pitch has been so minimal that the only minutes played by a newcomer in the Premier League this season have been the 18 in which Federico Chiesa has featured, versus the endless, expensive revolution at Stamford Bridge: some £1.3bn has been spent on players and managers in two and a half years. Last season, Liverpool drew with Chelsea in Mauricio Pochettino’s first game in charge, demolished them 4-1 at Anfield on an evening when Darwin Nunez also struck the woodwork four times, and humiliated them in the Carabao Cup final. That extra-time victory, engineered by the “kindergarten Klopps”, led Gary Neville to label Chelsea the “blue billion-pound bottle jobs”.
As Slot tries to ascertain where Liverpool’s level lies, he cites Chelsea’s improvement under Enzo Maresca. The top three after seven matches – Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal – are the same trio after 38 last year, albeit in a different order. He nevertheless feels the idea of a “big three” is less entrenched, with congestion and competition likelier. “Because the margins are so small, especially one, two, three and then there was quite a big gap [last season] to four, five and six, I’m expecting four, five and six to be closer to one, two and three now with Chelsea being one of them,” he explained. “Maybe Chelsea will be the No 1, I don’t know. But there is more competition this season in the top four positions. What I’m expecting now is that the teams that finish one to four will need more points than last season.”
Fourth required 68 last season. Liverpool came third with 82. It suggests they are likelier title contenders than Chelsea, who finished sixth with 63. Slot nevertheless draws a distinction between campaigns and one that stretches beyond the loss of Klopp. Liverpool extended a quest for a quadruple until the end of March last season. Yet a fundamental difference for the Dutchman is that Liverpool did not play Champions League football then. He does not criticise his predecessor but notes the difficult campaign they endured in 2022-23, finishing in fifth. “We saw in the last year when we played in the Champions League, we saw last year with Manchester United,” he elaborated. “The only ones in the last two seasons who show they can play Champions League and Premier League is [Manchester] City and Arsenal.”
Klopp’s final title tilt, he feels, may have been aided by an ability to rest first-choice players such as Trent Alexander-Arnold and Virgil van Dijk in Europe. “Two years ago, this club played in the Champions League and you know what the end result on the Premier League table was,” he added. “I say this because then, during the Champions League nights, the Virgils and the Trents and all of them played. Last season was a better season in the Premier League table but in the Europa League, Trent and Virgil didn't play so it was one game a week. And playing one game a week is a big advantage compared to two games a week. So I am more curious to see how we handle the difficult Champions League games and then be ready for the weekend.”
It is why this could be a defining period: after Chelsea, how do they handle Leipzig, after that can they beat Arsenal? How do they cope with a double-header against Leverkusen and Villa? “The best way to judge us is in four weeks,” said Slot. And he too is withholding his own judgement as to what this season may bring for another four weeks.
