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Five reasons why Chelsea, not Arsenal, are Liverpool’s greatest threat in PL title race

Chelsea and Arsenal are both seven points behind Liverpool having won, drawn and lost the same number of games, but no one – including Enzo Maresca – gives the Blues a hope in hell of chasing down Arne Slot’s side.

If anyone’s going to do it, it’s Arsenal, and if not Arsenal, then more likely Manchester City than Chelsea. We’re not quite so sure.

Here are five reasons why it’s Chelsea, not Arsenal, who Liverpool should be fearing in the title race.

The Europa Conference League

While Arsenal have three further Champions League group games, two of which they’ll likely have to win to ensure automatic qualification for the knockout stage and the first of some significant hurdles to come to win that competition, we may as well crown Chelsea the Europa Conference League champions now. Not that they’ll be hugely bothered either way, we suspect.

There were rumours last season that they may withdraw from European competition so as not to fall under the remit of UEFA’s stricter financial fair play regulations, but Chelsea presumably decided to enter the ECL as it’s a ludicrously easy method of winning roughly £20m while keeping the second team reasonably happy with sufficient game time.

They are top of the table having won all of their four games while scoring 18 goals. Two teams from the Ekstraklasa are currently in positions two and three. What’s the Ekstraklasa, you ask? Well, exactly. It’s the Polish first division; Legia Warsaw are second and Jagiellonia Bialystok are third.

None of Robert Sanchez, Wesley Fofana, Levi Colwill, Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Noni Madueke or Nicolas Jackson have played a single minute yet, and shouldn’t be required at all, while Cole Palmer isn’t even available having not been named in the squad.

The focus of those players is entirely on the Premier League while the Arsenal’s first-team stars have split loyalties.

Not been burned before

Ahead of Chelsea’s spanking of Southampton Enzo Maresca claimed his squad’s tender age gives them a good chance of “dominating English football for five or ten years” but also means “we’re not in the title race” this term.

No manager in charge of a football club that’s been as far off the pace as Chelsea in recent seasons is going to claim they’re in with a shot of winning the Premier League at this stage, and it would be a particularly mad thing for Maresca to claim given the inexperience of his squad and indeed himself.

The joy of Chelsea right now is in their devil-may-care attitude, which goes hand in hand with their youth and vitality. It’s a horrible cliche, but genuinely the best thing to do for those Chelsea players is to not look at the table. Just go and play.

There are no skeletons in their closet as there is in Arsenal’s. Twice the Gunners have come close and twice they’ve failed, and while they will have learned lessons from losing out to Manchester City in the last two seasons, it’s slightly odd that people are so quick to see those failures as a positive and possible route to eventual success.

Does failing increase the chance of subsequent success, or having experienced failure do you then fear it to the extent that you continue to fail?

Only one irreplaceable

Arsenal looked incredibly ordinary without Martin Odegaard. They would have been out of the title race for good had he been sidelined for much longer. He may very well be the most irreplaceable player at Arsenal, but there’s no doubt Mikel Arteta lives in fear of injuries to other members of his first team, without whom there would be a sizeable drop-off in quality.

Bukayo Saka to Raheem Sterling, David Raya to Neto and Kai Havertz to Gabriel Jesus are all significant downgrades as things stand, while watching Oleksandr Zinchenko’s attempts to cope with Amad Diallo against Manchester United will be a concern as Ben White recovers from his operation.

Losing Palmer would be a big problem for Chelsea. Joao Felix, decent though he’s been this season, can’t hold a candle to the England international. But other than Palmer, it doesn’t feel like there’s a player that Chelsea couldn’t cope without.

Caicedo’s been excellent but so too has Enzo Fernandez in recent games, making a midfield pairing of him and Lavia perfectly fine. Jackson’s proved doubters wrong with eight Premier League goals, but that’s fewer than his backup Christopher Nkunku. Noni Madueke’s been the pick of the wingers, but Jadon Sancho and Pedro Neto have also impressed.

It’s a toss-up between Sanchez and Filip Jorgensen in goal anyway and none of the centre-backs are so good as to be a long way clear of the rest.

Two or three injuries for key Chelsea players, while making them worse, wouldn’t cripple them to the extent that they would Arsenal.

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Nicolas Jackson

We’re sure all the Arsenal fans are thoroughly looking forward to the dozens of pundits over the next few months giving the same Hot Take that their side is lacking the Proper Striker to drive them to the title. Did You See What Alexander Isak Did To Liverpool? etc etc.

Before those irritating know-nothings stick their oars in, allow us to make exactly the same point. They would love Nicolas Jackson, wouldn’t they?

Frankly, who wouldn’t? We fell in love with him last season and now that he’s scoring all manner of goals we can barely brush past someone in the street without extolling his virtues.

Sorry, what’s that? Better than Erling Haaland? We’re saying nothing. Except yes. Yes, he’s better than Erling Haaland.

The norm for Enzo Maresca

Won the Championship last season. Winning titles is just what Maresca does. Except when he was sacked after 15 games in charge of Parma.

When he’s in charge for a whole season winning titles is just what Maresca does.

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