Liverpool will look to respond from consecutive losses on Saturday when they visit a Chelsea side that has sputtered so far amid injuries and two red cards through their first six English Premier League matches.
Manager Arne Slot’s Reds (5-1-0, 15 points) still enter the weekend with a two-point lead over Arsenal after dropping their first EPL points in last weekend’s 2-1 defeat at Crystal Palace.
Following that disappointment, in which Federico Chiesa equalized late only for Eddie Nketiah to restore Palace’s lead deep in stoppage time, the Reds failed to find the net in a 1-0 UEFA Champions League loss at Turkish power Galatasaray on Tuesday.
But Slot disputed the idea that the performance in Istanbul had any hallmarks of an emotional hangover.
“If the reaction is after you lose against Palace you lose another game, you can argue if that is positive,” Slot said. “But I saw a team that wanted to try, from the first second until the last second, everything to get a result. Different to the Palace game, we won much more second balls, we were — like in the Palace game — close to a result.”
Liverpool also is still waiting for its first goal from British record signing Alexander Isak, who completed his move from Newcastle at the end of the summer window for a reported fee of around $170 million.
Hugo Ekitike, another summer acquisition, leads the Reds with three league goals.
Chelsea (2-2-2, 8 points) have lost back-to-back league fixtures away to Manchester United and home against Brighton and Hove Albion.
They finished both with 10 men against Brighton after goalkeeper Robert Sanchez and defender Trevoh Chalobah, respectively, were sent off for denying obvious goal-scoring opportunities. The latter is suspended for Saturday’s clash.
The Blues also are without star attacker Cole Palmer (groin) and summer acquisition Liam Delap (thigh) among a handful of injury casualties.
And manager Enzo Maresca believes those factors have obscured performances that are better than Chelsea’s eighth-place standing.
“I think we started very, very well in terms of results and performance,” Maresca said. “I think most of the games where we didn’t get the points is because they were games very complicated for us in terms of, unfortunately, red cards. But no doubt that also the injury situation, we have at this moment I think eight players out. So it’s a mixed combination, but we don’t have any doubt that slowly, slowly we’re going to be again where we need to be.”
–Field Level Media
