Chelsea beat the champions but are still 19 points behind. Can they challenge next season?

There is nothing like a convincing win against the champions to make fans begin to dream a little. Well, be a little more optimistic about the future at least.

Chelsea’s first victory against Liverpool in 11 attempts is comfortably their best result of the season. Yes, people can point to Arne Slot not picking his first-choice XI, but Enzo Maresca’s side were playing with the pressure of needing three points to help their bid for Champions League football via a top-five finish. They duly delivered.

Much was made of Liverpool perhaps being affected by celebrating their 20th championship, secured the previous weekend, a little too much. And yet Chelsea’s preparation was far from ideal too. Granted, Djurgarden did not provide the stiffest opposition in the first leg of their Conference League semi-final in Stockholm on Thursday night, as the 4-1 scoreline demonstrates.

But with standard doping taking place afterwards and the travel home, sources speaking anonymously to The Athletic to protect relationships have revealed that Chelsea’s players did not get to bed until 5am on Friday. It meant Maresca had only one intense 90-minute session (on the Saturday) to get his squad ready for a key fixture, and yet Chelsea put in one of their finest displays.

Now, of course, the main conversation afterwards immediately centred around how the win improved their chances of reaching their target of qualifying for next season’s Champions League. But Chelsea supporters want and expect more than this. They don’t want to see their players giving a guard of honour to pay respect to another club finishing top. The raucous boos that rang out for the Liverpool players as they walked out before kick-off, with Chelsea players lined up on either side to applaud them, betrayed that.

Chelsea followers want to see the club at least challenge for the league again, and maybe actually lift the trophy. Their inability to even compete at the top of the table now stretches to eight years. Just look at the table below, which documents where Chelsea have finished and how many points they have ended up behind the leaders since they last won the Premier League in 2017. Even though there are still three games remaining, the 2024-25 campaign (marked with an * to reflect that) is still listed here:

It makes for disappointing reading and also highlights that the rot set in before the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium replaced Roman Abramovich as owners in 2022.

As you can see, the closest Chelsea have finished to top spot in eight years is 19 points adrift — which is the advantage Liverpool have over Maresca’s team now. The average margin over this period is a disappointingly large 27.4 points.

After losing at Stamford Bridge, Slot was asked if he expected Chelsea to pose more of a title challenge next season. He replied: “I expected Chelsea to be a threat this season. At Anfield (when Liverpool won 2-1 in October), they were better than us, they were so close to us, so it is a complete surprise to me that we are now 19 points clear of them.”

In an interview with Sky Sports in January, Maresca was asked the same thing and avoided saying yes, partly because the Italian prefers to concentrate on the present rather than the future.

His response at the time was: “I don’t know. The plan with the club, the schedule that you try to do at the beginning of the season or when we met for the first time, was for the second season to go for the top four, and then after the second season, try to compete for the title. This is the reason why I said many times we are ahead of my expectations because we spent almost the whole season in the top four, and this shows how far ahead we are in terms of expectations.”

Few will tip them to finish first next year, but Chelsea must aim to be a lot closer at least. The squad still has some missing pieces, yet there is a lot of quality there too.

Moises Caicedo is now widely regarded as one of the best midfielders in the Premier League, with Cole Palmer seen as one of the most exciting players. They are both on an upward trajectory, having joined from Brighton & Hove Albion and Manchester City respectively two years ago, and at 23, should only get better.

With seven goals and 13 assists in 42 appearances, Enzo Fernandez is enjoying his finest form in a Chelsea shirt since arriving from Benfica in January 2023. Marc Cucurella is another who has become a trusted member of the first XI. Centre back Levi Colwill has been earmarked as a possible captain one day, and one more with a lot of potential. As much as he can frustrate, Chelsea do pose a threat whenever Nicolas Jackson leads the line.

Romeo Lavia has played just 14 times in 2024-25 but has provided enough of a sample size to show he makes a huge difference when fit. It is a big if given his injury record, but should he be available for the majority of fixtures in 2025-26, then few teams will have a better midfield trio than Lavia, Caicedo and Fernandez.

Chelsea already plan to have Andrey Santos, who has impressed on loan at Strasbourg for the past 17 months, providing competition for Lavia in midfield. A promising prospect from Sporting CP, Dario Essugo, will be back-up for Caicedo, an important role given the greater demands on energy levels Champions League football, should they qualify, will bring. Then there is also the rising star of Brazilian football, Estevao Willian, joining from Palmeiras to inject more flair in the final third.

The club intend to add another striker, right-footed left-winger and centre-back to the group in the transfer window this summer. Reaching the Champions League will provide more funds and help them beat rivals to their first-choice targets. Importantly, it provides evidence to everyone connected to Stamford Bridge that progress is being made. Maresca will have the benefit of a year’s more experience in the job, too having had only brief spells in charge of Parma (14 games) and Leicester City (one season) before Chelsea.

Now, this does not mean anyone should get overexcited. There have been plenty of reality checks this season. The run of nine points in 10 games from December 22 to February 22 was one and some of the dour football since the turn of the year has been another.

There are still question marks over the key position at goalkeeper, with Chelsea not planning to sign another for now. That means a decision will be made between Robert Sanchez, Djordje Petrovic, Filip Jorgensen and Mike Penders (who will complete a move from Genk), with the latter most likely to be sent on loan.

If they fall short of the Champions League positions with the finishing line in sight, that will leave some scar tissue to take into 2025-26. But it should still be seen as an opportunity to kick on to another level.

Chelsea fans have waited long enough.

(Top photo: Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)