The key takeaway from Arne Slot’s press conference after their 5-1 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt was supposedly that ‘he told everyone how to beat Liverpool’ as he decried opposition teams refusing to fall into their pressing trap by looking to pass the ball out from the back.

“The biggest exception for me was the playing style of our opponent,” Slot said when asked what had changed following a run of four consecutive defeats.

“We got some energy out of the moments we could press them — in the last four of five games we’ve played we were not able to press the opponent, because the ball wasn’t on the ground. It was through the air.”

He can expect an uptick in direct football when he takes his side to Brentford on Saturday night and we suspect in general from Premier League teams, whose managers will surely look to play on that now publicly declared weakness.

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But the Liverpool boss has also apparently managed to wipe the Chelsea game from his memory, in which his side were – for want of a better phrase that’s less condescending to teams who dare to play the game in a different way – out-footballed by Enzo Mareca’s Blues, who welcomed and broke the Liverpool press in devastating fashion to score the winner.

Marc Guiu was the only Chelsea player who didn’t touch the ball in that move, which featured two passes inside the Blues’ box before the ball was swept from right to left via Moises Caicedo, and back to the right again for Estevao to score at the back post. They ripped Slot’s side apart.

Chelsea had more possession (53.2%), completed more passes (508:450) and more short passes (486:452) than Liverpool. Robert Sanchez ‘launched’ 33 per cent of his passes in that game, which is lower than his average of 36 per cent this season. If anything, Chelsea wanted Liverpool to press them.

Slot has more pressing concern than ‘through the air’ football as Liverpool boss forgets Chelsea

Maybe because that’s just who Maresca’s Chelsea are, but also perhaps because Liverpool’s press isn’t what it was last season.

Galatasaray successfully played their way through a particularly lame Liverpool counter-press before being awarded their game-clinching penalty.

Estêv?o’s dramatic added-time goal for Chelsea vs Liverpool saw 10 different Blues’ players involved in the move, which lasted only 28 seconds.

Only one Premier League goal this season has seen all 11 players involved (Rio Ngumoha’s for Liverpool vs Newcastle). pic.twitter.com/ShOlPJKlEe

— Opta Analyst (@OptaAnalyst) October 6, 2025

Hugo Ekitike and Cody Gakpo had both missed chances to give the Reds the lead before Florian Wirtz’s back heel saw that move break down. The Germany international then (sort of) tried to win the ball back but was easily turned away from by compatriot Ilkay Gundogan.

Baris Alper Yilmaz was then found by Lucas Torriera before driving into the box and winning the penalty thanks to Dominik Szoboszlai’s flailing arm.

And Liverpool’s struggles in coping with teams in transition, in getting that press right, continued on Wednesday despite their mauling of Frankfurt.

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Wirtz again gave the ball away high up the pitch before the Bundesliga side exploited a gaping hole in midfield – just as Torreira did for Galatasaray – as Curtis Jones and Szoboszlai looked closer to tackling each other as panic set in before Rasmus Kristensen fired the home side in front.

When Slot refers to the “energy” the opportunity to press gives his side, he’s presumably referring to their belief in creating chances by winning the ball high up the pitch.

And while plenty of managers from now on will look to avoid granting them those chances, Slot’s suggestion that teams who have beaten them have got their success purely through booting the ball over their heads is wide of the mark.

Chelsea got the better of them through playing a similar brand of football, the style Slot evidently believes is the correct and proper one. It wasn’t a second balls, lump it and hope approach. They faced them up, passed it through them and beat them at their own game.