Liverpool and Chelsea suffer defeats as Champions League hopes take a hit

Liverpool and Chelsea suffered major defeats in the Premier League, raising concerns over their Champions League qualification chances, while Everton strengthened their position in the race and Burnley moved closer to relegation after another loss

Liverpool: A 10th Premier League loss of the campaign for Liverpool.

A fourth straight defeat in 10 days for Chelsea.
These are difficult times for two of the biggest-spending clubs in English football.

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Forget about challenging for the Premier League title, at this rate they are struggling to even qualify for the Champions League.

Liverpool’s title defence weakened further on Saturday in a 2-1 loss at Brighton that extended the defending champion’s winless run in the league to three matches.

Danny Welbeck scored both goals for Brighton at Amex Stadium, either side of Milos Kerkez’s equaliser for Liverpool in its latest poor display under manager Arne Slot.

A few hours later, Chelsea were beaten by Everton 3-0, completing a difficult week in which the team was also knocked out of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain in an 8-2 aggregate loss.

Liverpool are holding on to fifth spot in the league, a point and a place ahead of Chelsea. The Premier League is likely to again have five qualification spots for next season’s Champions League, but even that might not be enough for these two underperforming teams.

It’s not good enough

Liverpool have taken just one point from their last three league games and are 21 points behind first-placed Arsenal with seven games left in the campaign.

The Reds became the first team since Chelsea in the 2017-18 season to lose 10 matches in a title defence.

“It’s not good enough, no matter how many excuses I come up with,” said Slot, whose position is coming under scrutiny less than a year after leading Liverpool to a record-tying 20th English top-flight title.

Among those excuses might be Liverpool’s injury problems, which worsened when striker Hugo Ekitike went off in the eighth minute with a dead leg. Slot did say after the match, however, that it was not serious.

The Dutch coach was already without star winger Mohamed Salah and goalkeeper Alisson Becker, who both got injured this week, while Alexander Isak, signed for $170 million last summer, has been out since December and has not been fully fit all season.

Still, few could have expected Liverpool’s title defence to be so underwhelming when the club spent a record $570 million in last summer’s transfer window to strengthen a championship-winning squad.

Everton joins Champions League race

Watch out Liverpool and Chelsea, Everton are coming for a place in the top five.

Beto scored twice and Iliman Ndiaye curled a shot into the top corner for the third as Everton outplayed Chelsea, which delivered a performance lacking in energy after its recent Champions League matches.

Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior said it was his team’s most disappointing performance since he took charge in January.

Everton were in eighth place, behind Brentford, which drew 0-0 at Leeds on goal difference, and were only three points behind Liverpool and two behind Chelsea.

They also have a goalkeeper in excellent form. Jordan Pickford produced another fine save to tip over a close-range effort by Enzo Fernandez in the first half.

Chelsea have won just one of their last six games in the league, and that was at third-placed Aston Villa, another team struggling towards the end of the season.

Burnley facing relegation after another loss

Next-to-last Burnley slipped closer to relegation by losing to Fulham 3-1 after taking the lead.

Josh King, Harry Wilson and Raul Jimenez, with a stoppage-time penalty, scored for Fulham after Zian Flemming put Burnley ahead in the 60th minute.

Burnley were nine points from safety with seven games remaining and only three points above last-placed Wolverhampton.

It was Jimenez’s first goal since the death of his father last week, and the Mexico striker was emotional after the match.