Slot's depleted Liverpool host a Chelsea side six defeats deep at Anfield
Liverpool host Chelsea at Anfield on Saturday lunchtime in a Premier League fixture that says everything about how differently their seasons have gone. Kick-off is 11.30am GMT, and the gap in mood between the two squads walking through the tunnel will be the first thing anyone notices.
Arne Slot's Liverpool sit fourth on 58 points, six clear of Bournemouth and seven clear of Brentford. A win, combined with Bournemouth dropping points at Fulham, would lock in Champions League football. Even without that helping result, three points would push them so close to the line that a bad day at home in the final week is the only realistic way they miss out.
Liverpool licking the wounds from Old Trafford
The recent context is not flattering. Liverpool went to Old Trafford last weekend and were two-nil down inside fifteen minutes, with Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko punishing a sloppy start. They came back through Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo before Kobbie Mainoo's 77th-minute winner sent them home empty-handed. United took the double over them for the first time in a decade and guaranteed Champions League qualification themselves.
The bigger Liverpool problem this week is the treatment table. Mohamed Salah, Wataru Endo, Giovanni Leoni and Conor Bradley are all out. Hugo Ekitike is sidelined long-term with an Achilles issue. Alexander Isak picked up a groin niggle in the build-up to the United game and remains a doubt for Saturday. Florian Wirtz and Ibrahima Konaté missed training in the lead-up. Alisson Becker and Giorgi Mamardashvili are also flagged as doubtful or absent. That is not a team-news bulletin, that is a list of starters.
Chelsea, deep in the worst run since 1993
Chelsea arrive in a different kind of mess. Six consecutive Premier League defeats. The longest top-flight losing run the club has had since 1993. Liam Rosenior was sacked on April 22 after a five-game scoreless league streak, with Calum McFarlane stepping up as interim head coach for a second time this season after Enzo Maresca left in January.
The latest league outing was a 3-1 home loss to Nottingham Forest, where Joao Pedro's stoppage-time goal at least snapped a goalless run that was threatening to become the worst scoring drought in the club's 121-year history. Chelsea sit ninth, just one point above twelfth-placed Sunderland, with a Premier League season slipping away and a permanent manager search yet to start in any visible way.
The one bright corner is the FA Cup. McFarlane's first match in his second interim spell was a 1-0 win over Leeds in the semi-final, putting Chelsea in the final. A trophy would not undo a sixth-place-or-worse league finish, but it would change the shape of the off-season conversation entirely.
Anfield, history and a heavy afternoon
Liverpool and Chelsea have one of the most-played fixtures in English football, and the long-term head-to-head sits in Liverpool's favour, especially at Anfield. None of that history will matter much on Saturday. Liverpool need points to confirm a top-five finish, and Chelsea need a result to begin the climb out of a hole that just keeps getting deeper.
If Liverpool's makeshift starting XI clicks early, Chelsea's confidence is fragile enough that the game could get away from them quickly. If it does not, an interim Chelsea side with very little to lose and an FA Cup final to play for could pick at a depleted Liverpool back line until the closing minutes feel uncomfortable. Either outcome is plausible, which is more than most Anfield previews against Chelsea have been able to say in years.
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