Chelsea and Liverpool analysis: Five things we learnt from 3-1 win for hosts at the Bridge

On Sunday, May 4, we saw Liverpool play for the first time after being crowned champions of England as Chelsea welcomed them to Stamford Bridge with a guard of honour. 

Here, Sports News Blitz writer Alec Hayward takes a look into five things we learnt from Sunday's clash of titans.

Liverpool lack motivation

After being crowned the champions of England it looked like Liverpool now don’t have much to play for and this showed by their slow and sloppy performance on Sunday.

While Liverpool did rotate their squad for the start of the match, it still had some of their most senior and experienced players starting including those such as Virgil van Dijk, Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah.

However, even with these players they looked a bit shaky and this wasn’t helped by an early goal for Chelsea.

This shaky start carried on for the entire first half with them creating very little when going forward and Chelsea having the majority of joys.

Liverpool had only four shots in the first half, with only one on target - a ninth-minute attempt from Cody Gakpo.

They did step up a bit more in the second half. With seven shots and three big chances created, scoring one of them, however, still wasn’t enough.

Ultimately this shaky performance was punished and they lost the game.

The loss marked their first time this season losing by a margin bigger than one goal.

While they would’ve looked to win and would’ve wanted to win, the result doesn’t have an impact on them, with the exception of them trying to make 90 points this season.

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Chelsea and the Champions League

While this result didn’t have much of an impact on Liverpool, it has a massive impact on Chelsea and the race for the top five this season.

Their win took Chelsea to 63 points. 

The game showed that even if Chelsea has some incredibly difficult games to finish the season, they won’t go down without fighting for the Champions League spots this season.

Now with three games left of the season, Chelsea are in a favourable position to qualify for the UEFA Champions League for the first time under the current ownership as they sit fifth equal on points to Newcastle.

This makes next Sunday's game even bigger for Chelsea as they go to St James’ Park to face Newcastle in what could be a vital game for Champions League qualifications.

This game will be vital in boosting confidence for the Chelsea team for the rest of the season as while it was a rotated squad for Liverpool, they have still beaten the champions and this will boost them going forward.

Chelsea will now be going into the game against Newcastle looking for their fifth consecutive win for the first time in 2025. 

Romeo Lavia delivers

Once again, this young man showed how vital he is bringing balance to this Chelsea midfield as he has done many times this season. 

Romeo Lavia is everything this Chelsea midfield needs to be completed as he helps bring defensive stability alongside Moises Caicedo as well as a high tempo. 

Lavia played 78 minutes on Sunday and didn’t misplace a pass once completing all 23 of his passes. Three of those passes were into the final third. 

He was vital in the build-up of the first goal with a fast and direct ball to Cole Palmer who gave it to Pedro Neto, squaring it to Enzo Fernandez who scored. 

His ability on the ball and how press-proven he is was shown once again, not being dispossessed once, and just keeping possession before moving the ball on.

However, it wasn’t just his passing that was incredible in this game. His defensive work was immaculate winning both tackles he made along with making five recoveries. 

He showed that once again he is one of Chelsea's best players and one of the most technically gifted players when fit. 

He has started 10 Premier League games this season and out of those 10 he has started Chelsea has lost two - Liverpool (away) and Manchester City - and won five of them. 

Lavia is vital for Chelsea. They are a much stronger side when he plays, so, many Chelsea fans will be hoping he can stay fit.

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Jarell Quansah’s struggles

It wasn’t Jarell Quansah’s day unfortunately with a poor performance that started with a very unlucky own goal and ended by giving away a penalty. 

The young defender started just his third game this season and it definitely didn’t go the way he would’ve wanted, conceding three.

He was very unlucky with the own goal that he scored, as it was his captain who cleared the ball into his chest before eventually ending in the back of the net.

This performance would then be ended by a loose pass from Dominik Szoboszlai where Quansah was just beaten to the ball by Caicedo.

However, he lunged in, clipping Caicedo in the process, giving away a penalty.

While he did have these two moments, he was ultimately good defensively with two blocks, three clearances and seven recoveries.

However, those two moments will be decisive for Arne Slot who will now be looking to observe if he can be trusted.

Hopefully, for the youngster, Slot will give him more game time now that the title is won, as he will now look to right his wrongs from this game.

Cole Palmer is back

One of the stand-out players from Sunday's game and the man of the match winner, Cole Palmer is back.

The English-man was back to his best and what we have grown to expect from him with an absolutely dominant display against Liverpool. 

Palmer was a key player in all of the goals that Chelsea scored, sitting down Curtis Jones before passing it through to Neto for the first goal, showing his great change of pace against Tsimikas for the second and then slotting away the penalty for the third.

Palmer was vital in everything good going forward that Chelsea did against the Reds, creating four chances and one big chance, along with hitting the woodwork.

Along with his attacking play, he had a great game-winning back possession for Chelsea with three interceptions and seven recoveries.

The man looked like he had all his confidence back that people had started to believe he had lost. He also showed that form is temporary, but class is permanent.

Now, Chelsea fans will be hoping that this class stays for the remainder of the season as they look to have a strong finish to the season and that Palmer will be the front and centre of that finish.

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