Chelsea gave the champions a guard of honour at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon. Their players stood obediently in two lines before the kick-off and clapped as Virgil van Dijk and the rest of the Liverpool team emerged from the tunnel and marched through the middle of them.
For much of the 90 minutes of football that followed, Liverpool returned the favour. They did not actually applaud as Chelsea outplayed them and secured a vital three points in their bid to qualify to play in the Champions League next season but they might as well have done.
Not content with leaving most of their first-choice midfield on the bench, Liverpool scored one of Chelsea’s three goals for them with an embarrassing mix-up that saw Van Dijk smash the ball into Jarell Quansah’s nether regions and the ball balloon across the line for an own goal.
If that wasn’t enough, Arne Slot’s side handed Chelsea the clinching third goal on a plate deep in time added on with a careless backpass from Dominik Szoboszlai. Moises Caicedo chased it down, Quansah tried to clear it and cleared out Caicedo instead.
Cole Palmer scored the penalty, his first goal in 19 games, to settle the home side’s nerves and leave their coaching staff celebrating as if it was actually them who had won the league. Quansah marched off the pitch at the end looking inconsolable.
Some immediately accused Liverpool of disrespecting the competition and teams like Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa, whose task in trying to catch Chelsea has now been made immeasurably harder.
Chelsea beat champions Liverpool 3-1 to boost their Champions League qualification hopes
Enzo Fernandez opened the scoring after just three minutes at Stamford Bridge this afternoon
Chelsea doubled their lead at the start of the second half with Jarell Quansah own goal
But the truth is that Slot led his side to the league title last weekend and he is entitled to pick whatever team he chooses. It was not as if he wanted his team to lose but he may well have wanted to give players like Harvey Elliott, Diogo Jota and Quansah a chance to impress him ahead of recruitment decisions this summer. None of them did.
Chelsea were not particularly convincing, especially for a team that cost over £1bn to put together, but they were deserved winners and their victory kept them in fifth place, level on points with Newcastle above them and three clear of Forest below them.
They still have to travel to both Newcastle and Forest in their last three games and both those sides will provide them with stiffer opposition than Liverpool did at the Bridge. Chelsea got Liverpool at the perfect time and they took full advantage.
Chelsea had taken the lead inside three minutes. Romeo Lavia, who has missed so many games through injury but makes this Chelsea team so much better, started the move deep in his own half with a clever pass to Palmer that broke the lines.
Palmer turned and played the ball wide to Pedro Neto and when Neto pulled back his cross, it fell to Enzo Fernandez, who took one touch to control the ball with his left foot and then dispatched it past Alisson with his right foot.
It all felt so easy, so much easier than it would have been a week ago or any time previously this season. A minute later, Chelsea were nearly two up. Noni Madueke ran at the Liverpool defence, and ran, and ran before dragging a pea-roller just wide.
After that flurry of activity, most of the rest of the half was becalmed. It was not until past the half hour that it sprang to life again when Madueke produced a brilliant, mazy run, slaloming through the Liverpool box and seeing his shot blocked. When Moises Caicedo tried to cross the ball back into the box, it skidded off the top of the bar.
Eleven minutes after half-time, Chelsea doubled their lead. They didn’t really score their second goal. Liverpool scored it for them, although Palmer deserves all of the credit for creating it.
Cole Palmer ended his goal drought to give Chelsea their third with a stoppage time penalty
Chelsea fans booed as newly crowned champions Liverpool were given a guard of honour
Palmer won the ball midway inside the Liverpool half and ran at Kostas Tsimikas. He turned him and teased him and twisted him and then cut the ball across goal. Madueke tried to turn it in but Wataru Endo seemed to have thwarted the danger with a superb block.
The ball fell to Virgil van Dijk. The Liverpool captain is normally the personification of calm. But this time, the king of cool swung his right boot at it to try to launch it upfield. The ball hit Jarell Quansah squarely in the unmentionables and rebounded into the empty net.
The embarrassment of the goal – and their general performance – spurred Liverpool into action. Slot called the cavalry and brought on Conor Bradley, Darwin Nunez, Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai.
Liverpool’s tempo increased immediately. Nunez did what he has, sadly, become famous for at Liverpool and missed a sitter, a free header that he should have scored but directed wildly wide.
Liverpool continued to have the better of the game but to no avail. Tsimikas crossed to the back post and Mo Salah, who had been a peripheral presence, headed the ball across goal and wide of the right-hand post.
Liverpool wrapped up their second Premier League title after a 5-1 win against Spurs last week
Chelsea sit in fifth place after their win, three points above Nottingham Forest in sixth
Chelsea’s 3-1 win is the first time boss Arne Slot has lost by more than one goal at Liverpool
Eighty minutes had gone when Palmer produced his piece de resistance. He got the ball near the corner flag, accelerated past Bradley as if he was not there and then slid the ball past Alisson at his near post. It cannoned off the far post and away to safety but that blur of movement and beauty made up for the all the lethargy in an instant.
Then, six minutes from the end, Van Dijk made the perfect run to meet a corner from Mac Allister on the full and power it past Sanchez. Maresca put his head in his hands and briefly, it seemed as though Liverpool might defy their torpor to grab a point.
It didn’t happen. In fact, Liverpool returned to charity. Szoboszlai’s nonchalant pass in Quansah’s direction was short and underhit and it did not take account of Caicedo’s relentless energy.
Caicedo chased it down and got to it a fraction of a second before Quansah. Quansah swung his right foot at it but made contact with Caicedo instead and Palmer gilded his performance with an emphatic penalty. Chelsea had got lucky. They are unlikely to find either Newcastle or Forest in such accommodating moods when they try to seal their top five place in the weeks ahead.
