LONDON, ENGLAND - MAY 04: (THE SUN OUT, THE SUN ON SUNDAY OUT) Dominik Szoboszlai of Liverpool applauds the fans following the Premier League match between Chelsea FC and Liverpool FC at Stamford Bridge on May 04, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Liverpool FC/Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
The Liverpool players applaud the travelling supporters, who were in fine voice after seeing their side become Premier League champions despite the 3-1 loss at Chelsea
Arne Slot and his Liverpool players might have been forgiven for raising an eyebrow at what awaited them at the full-time whistle here at Stamford Bridge. Having slipped to a third defeat of the campaign, this time 3-1 to Champions League-chasing Chelsea, the head coach and his squad will reasonably have expected some more disappointed faces as they made their way towards the away end to applaud their support.
Instead, what greeted them was a set of supporters celebrating even more wildly than those in the home ends. Plumes of red smoke drifted into the London sky, balloons spelled out champions and the creative and colourful banners were all on show with pride.
The message was clear: Liverpool's Premier League title procession is underway - and it'll take more than this to spoil the fun.
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And when the end-of-season DVD is released to retell the story of the club’s 20th league title victory, it's entirely plausible that this game will be ignored completely. It certainly won’t take up much of run-time at least.
This was a Liverpool side in decompression mode and pitted against what is one of the most expensively assembled squads of all time, who were in search of vital points for Champions League qualification at home, it should be viewed as no major shock to see Slot's men beaten when it's all weighed up.
A failure to increase a 15-point lead over Arsenal is about the sum of it for the Reds, for whom this fixture was of far less significance than their hosts.
What surely will gnaw at Slot, though, will be the failure of his squad players to impose themselves on a game that saw many of them given rare starts. The Reds boss indicated in his Friday press conference that changes would now be far more sweeping than previously, but hardly any of the six made here enhanced their own reputation.
It would be ludicrous to be overly critical of a side whose overriding ambition of the Premier League title was achieved with a month to spare last week and there were certainly no tears shed from the away end at an inability to extend their already unassailable and ridiculous advantage over Arsenal at the top.
But the likes of Harvey Elliott, Wataru Endo and most notably Jarell Quansah - who had a nightmare - did little to offer their boss a timely reminder of their respective qualities.
Liverpool started sluggishly, which wasn't entirely unexpected, and they fell behind to Enzo Fernandez's third-minute strike, which was the quickest goal at Stamford Bridge since 2017.
Cody Gakpo worked Robert Sanchez into a decent save but the Reds struggled to make any real in-roads into the opposition penalty area. Slot's six changes failed to spark the team in the way he would have hoped given a handful of the players selected might have reasonably had a point to prove.
Elliott was unable to make a telling contribution while Diogo Jota once more toiled as the leader of the line. The Portugal international has scored just one goal since January and looked bereft of confidence and fitness here.
Mohamed Salah was another who was unable to exert any influence on proceedings with a couple of sloppy touches at important times bringing an end to promising attacks in the first period.
The No.11 perhaps could have done better with a header late on also, but with 33 goals and 23 assists, the Egyptian - more than any other player, in fact - should be spared a thorough investigation into his laboured performance.
Chelsea had their second in somewhat fortunate circumstances before the hour mark. Cole Palmer danced past Kostas Tsimikas and Virgil van Dijk's attempted clearance struck Quansah before going into his own net.
It was rotten luck for the young centre-back on what was his first start in the league in his preferred position of centre-back since the opening day at Ipswich.
Slot sent on Conor Bradley and Darwin Nunez, for Trent Alexander-Arnold and Jota, and the latter planted a great chance wide when he got his header all wrong from Salah's cross.
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Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai came on before the 70th minute and Federico Chiesa was later introduced for Tsimikas as the Reds set about clawing their way back into things.
By then, the Londoners should have been out of sight with the impressive Palmer hitting the post and substitute Jadon Sancho forcing Alisson Becker into an excellent save.
Van Dijk's header had threatened to set up an unlikely and perhaps undeserved comeback before Szoboszlai's pass back inside saw Moises Caicedo nip in ahead of a dozing Quansah in stoppage time to win a penalty that Palmer tucked away.
That set up the sort of celebration that was only marginally more audible than the Liverpool end, for whom the football itself almost got in the way of their afternoon in the west London sun.
The damage is barely even cosmetic here for the Reds but for those out on the fringes, this was a chance that slipped through their grasp.