Chelsea will give Liverpool a guard of honor ahead of the two teams’ Premier League clash at Stamford Bridge this weekend. Sunday’s game is the Reds’ first since they were confirmed as champions courtesy of last weekend’s 5-1 victory over Tottenham.
Arne Slot and his players took Monday and Tuesday off to celebrate the title success before beginning preparations for the trip to Chelsea.
Chelsea boss Enzo Maresca confirmed in a press conference that he and his players will recognize Liverpool’s achievement prior to kick-off. “It’s tradition (to give a guard of honor),” Maresca said. “We have to do that and we are going to do that. They won the Premier League, so they deserve it.
“In terms of the gap (between Chelsea and Liverpool), it is there, you can see this clearly. My feeling is we are (moving) in the right direction and hopefully this gap can be smaller and smaller and smaller.
“I don’t think we need that (giving a guard of honor) to understand how good it is to win the Premier League. I think we know that it’s something very nice. But for sure, when you are there (giving Liverpool a guard of honor), probably in their mind, our players are thinking, ‘I would like one day to be there.’”
Among the Chelsea stars who will give Liverpool’s players a guard of honor are two former Liverpool targets in Moises Caicedo and Romeo Lavia. The Reds registered interest in Caicedo and Lavia during the 2023 summer transfer window but were blown out of the water by Chelsea.
Their moves to Chelsea saw Liverpool turn to Wataru Endo two years ago, and ironically it will be he who ends up receiving a guard of honor first.
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Maresca, meanwhile, admitted Chelsea could learn something from Liverpool’s transfer market activity over the last decade. The acquisitions of the likes of Alisson, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah in 2017 and 2018 helped to establish Liverpool as one of the top teams in Europe.
“For sure, if you want to close the gap with these kind of clubs then, you have to do things,” Maresca said. “I said already, our team next season will be better also in terms of experience, because this season has been one more year together.
“There are ones who are growing, like Levi (Colwill) for instance. He is growing a lot in terms of leadership. For sure, next sure he will be better and better. Hopefully the ones that we have, they can grow and help us in terms of experience.”
