Liverpool continued their superb start to the 2024-25 season with a 2-1 win over Enzo Maresca’s Chelsea on Sunday.
Nicolas Jackson gave Chelsea hope of a comeback after cancelling out Mohamed Salah’s first-half penalty, but Curtis Jones scored the winner just moments later.
Despite proving too strong for Chelsea, Liverpool boss Slot was impressed by the level of the Blues and believes they can emerge as regular title contenders over the next few seasons.
Chelsea finished sixth under Mauricio Pochettino last term and were widely tipped for another turbulent campaign under the Argentine’s replacement, ex-Leicester City boss Maresca.
But Chelsea had in fact lost just once in seven games before the defeat at Anfield, a run of form that has given the west London club real hope of finishing in the top-four and sealing a return to the Champions League.
Asked about Chelsea ahead of Liverpool’s Champions League clash against RB Leipzig on Wednesday night, Slot said: ‘I don’t think we outplayed Chelsea, we certainly didn’t.
‘I think they were more dominant than us with the ball. In an ideal world I would have seen us dominate the complete game like we did in so many other games.
‘We are not there yet but the good thing about this team and the result was that if you face a team like Chelsea, you see a team that is fighting for every centimetre and for every moment and that is what we did.
‘I’m hoping in the future, hopefully in the near future, that when we play a game like this we are more dominant than we were against Chelsea. But that probably says a lot about Chelsea as well.
‘A lot of people in England were making fun of Chelsea earlier in the season for investing so much money and bringing in all these players that weren’t in the squad but in my opinion they have done really well in the last two of three years bringing so many talented players in.
‘They have such a strong squad with such a good manager that they will be up there in the coming years. That is my opinion, let’s see if I am right.’
Speaking after the hard-fought 2-1 win, Slot said Chelsea had been Liverpool’s toughest opponent so far this season.
The Dutchman said: ‘Many other games were hard but this might have been the hardest maybe because of the amount of quality players they have and the structure they have.
‘We had to fight really hard to get this one over the line. We defended so strong through the whole team. There was incredible work-rate.
‘The game became difficult for us because there were a few decisions in my opinion that didn’t go for us, the most crucial was when we thought we had the penalty before half time.
‘To go 2-0 before half time would make a massive difference from 1-0. Then we conceded but we stepped up again and scored the second.
‘The better the teams you face the more you need it [fight]. In the Premier League there are so many good teams so if you want to win at least you need to fight and then hopefully the individuals can make the difference.
‘It helps if you play against a Chelsea, it is a big game and everyone feels it. We felt it and the fans felt it because they were there for us today. We showed up, that was the most important thing.’
Chelsea, currently sixth in the Premier League, will look to return to winning ways on Thursday night when they face Panathinaikos in the Europa Conference League.
Premier League leaders, Liverpool, meanwhile, face a huge match against title rivals Arsenal on Sunday.
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