The Blues host Arne Slot's unexpected champions on Sunday and will be desperate to close the gap to the Reds, or even emulate them, next season
You couldn't begrudge Chelsea's players feeling a tinge of jealousy when they line up against Liverpool on Sunday. The Blues will give the newly-crowned Premier League champions a guard of honour at Stamford Bridge, and they will be wondering what could have been.
It feels like a lifetime ago now that Enzo Maresca's men were considered Liverpool's nearest title rivals, but the west Londoners have gone from two to points adrift since early December as their challenge disintegrated.
Chelsea have fallen so far away that their focus is now on clinging onto a Champions League place in a testing run-in, but the clash against the league winners will also be a litmus test and offers the chance to examine how the Blues can close the gap to Arne Slot's side, or perhaps even emulate them, next season.
Getty/GOALFind their Van Dijk
Easier said than done, of course, but Chelsea have sorely lacked a defensive leader this season following Thiago Silva's exit. Wesley Fofana's injuries have resulted in a churn at centre-back, with Maresca rotating between Tosin Adarabioyo, Trevoh Chalobah and Benoit Badiashile alongside Levi Colwill.
Summer free signing Adarabioyo is now their most senior figure at the back at 27, but if we're being brutally honest he doesn't exactly boast the glittering CV to give any serious weight to his voice in the dressing room.
Finding a player with Virgil van Dijk's quality when the transfer window opens will of course be nigh on impossible, but Chelsea's aim should be finding a player who can that defensive lynchpin in the future. The reported pursuit of Bournemouth's Dean Huijsen is a good start – a player who has demonstrated elite potential in the Premier League this season.
AdvertisementGetty Images SportSign a goal-scorer
Liverpool have demonstrated exactly how you can survive and even thrive without a prolific striker in recent years and especially this season; their main No.9s Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota have just 11 league goals between them, although the Reds are a clear anomaly with the indomitable Mohamed Salah in their ranks.
Just about everyone knows Chelsea need a reliable and consistent goal-scorer as Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer struggle to carry the burden, and the Blues have been strongly linked with Ipswich Town centre-forward Liam Delap, as well as Bundesliga hitmen Benjamin Sesko and Hugo Ekitike.
While a prolific striker is the obvious answer, Salah is an example of why it's worth looking outside the box – both figuratively and literally; could the incoming Estevao be the answer? Or is there someone on the market like Real Madrid's Rodrygo who could become the man to plunder goals from other attacking areas? It's a decision Chelsea must finally get right.
Getty/GOALMidfield balance
Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez have been two of Chelsea's most consistent performers this season, but their good work has been somewhat undermined by the lack of a third centre-midfielder to offer balance and free them to play to their strengths.
Romeo Lavia has looked the part when fit, acting as more of a box-to-box option who progresses play with his passing and ability to beat the press, enabling Fernandez to play further up the pitch and Caicedo to invert from right-back and focus on being a pure midfield destroyer. However, there are murmurs that the club could cut its losses on the injury-plagued Belgian.
Everyone expected Liverpool to spend big on a new No.6 last season but instead Slot shrewdly looked inward (although their pursuit of Martin Zubimendi did collapse), and Ryan Gravenberch has unexpectedly shone at the base of their midfield behind Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai in a three-man set-up that has a bit of everything, with the Dutchman the perfect foil to the attack-minded former and creative latter.
Chelsea have tended to look far more fluid with Lavia in the team despite the fact he has only managed 12 league appearances all season, with their best spell coming when he was available between late September and early December as Maresca's men soared to second, before their form notably took a nosedive following his latest hamstring injury.
Still just 21, Lavia can be a long-term solution, but the challenge will be keeping him fit and on the pitch.
Getty Images SportTrim the fat
Liverpool's data-driven recruitment approach under renowned chief executive Michael Edwards – which is the envy of many clubs including Chelsea, who want to follow suit – has left them with a streamlined, well-balanced squad and very little deadwood, enabling Slot to use a trusted core of players.
By contrast, Chelsea's bewildering recent transfer strategy, or lack thereof, has left them with a bloated, unbalanced and disjointed group of players, despite – or perhaps as a result of – the huge clear-out they had in the summer of 2023.
While the Reds have one or two players who are either surplus to requirements or might be unhappy with their lack of minutes, the Blues have multiple individuals who serve no purpose. They could feasibly sell as many as 15 first-team players in the summer, including costly recent signings Christopher Nkunku, Joao Felix and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
If Chelsea want to close the gap to Liverpool or even emulate them, they must trim the fat and instead target players that will provide functional depth, like Wataru Endo, Curtis Jones and Conor Bradley do at Anfield. The early signing of highly-rated midfielder Dario Essugo from Sporting CP suggests the penny might have dropped.
