Liverpool’s latest Anfield stumble ended with boos on Saturday night, as Chelsea came from behind to draw 1-1 and leave the champions facing a bruising question about the direction of Arne Slot’s side. Ryan Gravenberch had put Liverpool ahead early, but Chelsea levelled and the final whistle brought a hostile response from the stands.
The point did little to calm a season that has drifted from the standard Liverpool set a year ago, when Slot arrived in England and won the Premier League in his first campaign with a 5-1 victory over Tottenham. This time, the list of setbacks has been longer and louder: a 3-0 League Cup defeat to Crystal Palace at Anfield, a 4-1 loss to PSV in the Champions League and six straight league defeats at one stage in a title defence that has not resembled the previous one.
There is still a hard number that keeps the bigger damage from turning into a collapse. Liverpool are on course to qualify for the Champions League, and they will probably finish in the top four if they can avoid another slip against the teams around them. But the route there has been uneven. They have collected just one point from seven away games against sides in the Premier League’s top nine, and earlier this month they were beaten by Wolves, who had not won since. That away record has become the clearest measure of how far the team has drifted from the authority it showed when it lifted the title.
The broader context is easy enough to find. Jürgen Klopp had come close with the same squad before Slot completed the job, and Liverpool’s owners now appear determined to keep faith with the Dutchman despite the noise around him. That support matters because the club has not simply had a poor run of results; it has had a title defence that has looked uneasy for months, even as the table has left open a path back into the Champions League places.
Still, the tension at Anfield is not just about the scoreline. It is about what the crowd heard and what it saw. Liverpool led early and could not close the match out. Chelsea earned their equaliser. Then came the boos. For a team that won the league a year ago, and for a manager still being backed from above, that is the kind of afternoon that sharpens the debate rather than settling it.
Slot has every reason to believe the season can still finish in a way that softens the judgment, but Saturday suggested the support inside the ground is thinning long before the owners’ patience does.
