Arne Slot shuffled his starting XI and offered a platform to impress but it was hit-and-miss in the 3-1 defeat at Chelsea, a result that is, ultimately, easy to swallow.
Chelsea 3-1 Liverpool
Premier League (35) | Stamford BridgeMay 4, 2025
Goals: Fernandez 3′, Quansah OG 55′, Palmer pen 90+6′; Van Dijk 84′
1. An easy defeat to take
Nobody likes losing, but if you are going to have days as incredible as Sunday’s win over Tottenham, then you surely have to accept ones like this.
Ultimately, this was a Liverpool team that has been in party mode since that victory, and which was much-changed as the manager looked to reward his fringe players.
Chelsea, meanwhile, desperately needed the three points in order to salvage their campaign by sneaking into the Champions League.
With all that in mind, there is little point reading too much into the result – as scenes in the away end throughout showed.
2. Elliott squanders rare chance
Presumably, Harvey Elliott was one of the players Arne Slot was thinking about when he spoke ahead of this match about using it to give minutes to players who had deserved to feature more this season.
But the midfielder failed to prove that he had merited greater involvement across the course of a frustrating afternoon at Stamford Bridge.
Though he was certainly not the only fringe player to disappoint after Slot made six changes, with Curtis Jones and Kostas Tsimikas also struggling to seize their chance.
Elliott is hardly a defensive presence in midfield and so it was little surprise to see him struggle in that aspect, posting just a single duel win and zero tackles contested.
However, the greatest disappointment was his performance on the ball, which brought two blocked shots from distance and zero chances created.
If the 22-year-old is still at the club next season – and doubts over his future persist – then he will have to do more if he is to break into Slot’s XI.
3. Endo, the model pro, shows he should be trusted
By contrast, the similarly underused Wataru Endo showed in this game why he should perhaps have been trusted a little more frequently this term.
The Japanese won 2/3 tackles (joint-most of any player) and 4/5 ground duels won (second-most) in a typically combative performance in the centre of midfield that helped Liverpool dominate possession.
But he also impressed on the ball, completing 93 percent of his passes, with four of them ending in the final third of the pitch – only three of his teammates finished with more.
For all that his tackling and fouls are a source of amusement, Endo is so much more than a destroyer. It would be a shame if, as has been touted, he moves on this summer.
4. Set-piece improvement continues
Liverpool have spent large parts of this campaign at the very bottom of the Premier League table for goals scored from set-pieces, but a late-season surge is rather suddenly bringing respectability to their tally.
And in heading home from a late corner at Stamford Bridge, Virgil van Dijk moved the Reds onto eight in total, the 13th best figure in the English top-flight.
Incredibly, four of those have come in their last four outings, supporting Slot’s recent assertion that he and his coaches have finally had time to work on this aspect of the game.
The Reds must hope that this new skill is something that can be taken into the start of their title defence, allowing for games to be broken far more easily.
5. Liverpool remain on course to make history
It might not be the headline but, in scoring late on here, Liverpool have kept themselves on track to set a club record before the campaign is out.
Should the Reds net against Brighton in two weeks’ time, then they will have done so in every single away game in a league season for the first time ever.
A league title is a league title, but to do something no other team has done at a club with such incredible history would be a remarkable feat.
Surely Slot will go for broke at the AMEX to set a new milestone.
