Virgil van Dijk admits he has been impressed by Chelsea’s enchancment this season as he anticipated a troublesome check for Liverpool on Sunday.
The Blues have loved a formidable begin to the season, establishing themselves as early candidates for a top-four end and sitting simply 4 factors behind league leaders Liverpool heading into Sunday’s sport.
Previewing the match, Van Dijk urged his Liverpool teammates to not underestimate Enzo Maresca’s younger facet.
“I do know that Anfield might be bouncing for the go to of Chelsea, and for positive we are going to look to attract on that noise and ambiance as we go for all three factors,” he wrote within the matchday programme. “All of us have our half to play in what might be a really robust sport.
“I’ve been impressed by Chelsea’s progress this season. I stated a number of weeks in the past, after our win at Wolverhampton Wanderers, that they’ve gone underneath the radar slightly bit throughout the media, however we will definitely not be underestimating them.
“Rather a lot has been made in regards to the variety of modifications they’ve made as a membership throughout the previous couple of seasons, however one factor that’s completely sure is that they’ve a squad which is stuffed with superb footballers, gamers who could cause issues for any crew.
“In addition they have a supervisor who has a transparent thought of how he desires his crew to play, and who appears like he’s beginning to get the perfect out of the expertise at his disposal.”
Liverpool boss Arne Slot went on to admit that Chelsea will possible signify his facet’s hardest check of the season to date, having beforehand urged followers to attend till his facet had confronted some top-tier opposition earlier than drawing conclusions on their title hopes.
“Going by the league desk as issues stand, Chelsea are the strongest opponents we’ve confronted to date,” Slot admitted.
“Going into this weekend, they had been in fourth place having had a superb begin to the season and selecting up some actually good outcomes alongside the best way.
“This could not come as any shock, after all. Chelsea have a whole lot of good gamers they usually completed final season nicely additionally so it is sensible that they may proceed to develop and enhance and that is definitely occurring proper now.
“We now have stated repeatedly that there can be some huge exams to come back for us and that is undoubtedly one in all them.”
