One of the most interesting segments from Arne Slot’s pre-Fulham news conference on Friday was hearing his thoughts on Liverpool’s current closest rivals Chelsea.
The Blues are second in the Premier League – four points behind Liverpool having played a game more – but their boss Enzo Maresca has consistently played down his side’s title chances.
Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-1 at Anfield in October and Slot cited that game as proof of the quality Maresca’s players possess.
“It was one of the games, maybe the only game, where I felt the other team was better than us,” said Slot. “That’s not to say for the long term they are better than us but during the game they had more ball possession than us and were threatening us more than any other team until now.
“I’m not there to judge which position they will end in the league table. I have to focus on my own team but Chelsea have been impressive this season so far, that’s for sure.”
In his conversation with the media, he addressed a number of other issues before welcoming Fulham to Anfield on Saturday (15:00 GMT).
He defended Darwin Nunez given the striker’s current struggles for goals. He also said he was not worried that Trent Alexander-Arnold, Mohamed Salah and Virgil van Dijk could speak to foreign clubs from 1 January with their deals expiring in the summer.
Finally he added that forwards Diogo Jota and Federico Chiesa could be in the squad to face Fulham.