Find their own Virgil van Dijk, clear out the dead wood and eight lessons Chelsea can learn from Liverpool to force themselves back into the Premier League title picture

Easier said than done, of course, but Chelsea have sorely lacked a defensive leader this season following Thiago Silva's exit. Wesley Fofana's injuries have resulted in a churn at centre-back, with Maresca rotating between Tosin Adarabioyo, Trevoh Chalobah and Benoit Badiashile alongside Levi Colwill.

Summer free signing Adarabioyo is now their most senior figure at the back at 27, but if we're being brutally honest he doesn't exactly boast the glittering CV to give any serious weight to his voice in the dressing room.

Finding a player with Virgil van Dijk's quality when the transfer window opens will of course be nigh on impossible, but Chelsea's aim should be finding a player who can become that defensive lynchpin in the future. The reported pursuit of Bournemouth's Dean Huijsen is a good start - a player who has demonstrated elite potential in the Premier League this season.

Liverpool have demonstrated exactly how you can survive and even thrive without a prolific striker in recent years and especially this season; their main No.9s Darwin Nunez and Diogo Jota have just 11 league goals between them, although the Reds are a clear anomaly with the indomitable Mohamed Salah in their ranks.

Just about everyone knows Chelsea need a reliable and consistent goal-scorer as Nicolas Jackson and Cole Palmer struggle to carry the burden, and the Blues have been strongly linked with Ipswich Town centre-forward Liam Delap, as well as Bundesliga hitmen Benjamin Sesko and Hugo Ekitike.

While a prolific striker is the obvious answer, Salah is an example of why it's worth looking outside the box - both figuratively and literally; could the incoming Estevao be the answer? Or is there someone on the market like Real Madrid's Rodrygo who could become the man to plunder goals from other attacking areas? It's a decision Chelsea must finally get right.

Moises Caicedo and Enzo Fernandez have been two of Chelsea's most consistent performers this season, but their good work has been somewhat undermined by the lack of a third centre-midfielder to offer balance and free them to play to their strengths.

Romeo Lavia has looked the part when fit, acting as more of a box-to-box option who progresses play with his passing and ability to beat the press, enabling Fernandez to play further up the pitch and Caicedo to invert from right-back and focus on being a pure midfield destroyer. However, there are murmurs that the club could cut its losses on the injury-plagued Belgian.

Everyone expected Liverpool to spend big on a new No.6 last season but instead Slot shrewdly looked inward (although their pursuit of Martin Zubimendi did collapse), and Ryan Gravenberch has unexpectedly shone at the base of their midfield behind Alexis Mac Allister and Dominik Szoboszlai in a three-man set-up that has a bit of everything, with the Dutchman the perfect foil to the attack-minded former and creative latter.

Chelsea have tended to look far more fluid with Lavia in the team despite the fact he has only managed 12 league appearances all season, with their best spell coming when he was available between late September and early December as Maresca's men soared to second, before their form notably took a nosedive following his latest hamstring injury.

Still just 21, Lavia can be a long-term solution, but the challenge will be keeping him fit and on the pitch.

Liverpool's data-driven recruitment approach under renowned chief executive Michael Edwards - which is the envy of many clubs including Chelsea, who want to follow suit - has left them with a streamlined, well-balanced squad and very little deadwood, enabling Slot to use a trusted core of players.

By contrast, Chelsea's bewildering recent transfer strategy, or lack thereof, has left them with a bloated, unbalanced and disjointed group of players, despite - or perhaps as a result of - the huge clear-out they had in the summer of 2023.

While the Reds have one or two players who are either surplus to requirements or might be unhappy with their lack of minutes, the Blues have multiple individuals who serve no purpose. They could feasibly sell as many as 15 first-team players in the summer, including costly recent signings Christopher Nkunku, Joao Felix and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.

If Chelsea want to close the gap to Liverpool or even emulate them, they must trim the fat and instead target players that will provide functional depth, like Wataru Endo, Curtis Jones and Conor Bradley do at Anfield. The early signing of highly-rated midfielder Dario Essugo from Sporting CP suggests the penny might have dropped.

While Chelsea's home form this season has been passable (10 wins, five draws, two defeats), the west Londoners have dropped far too many points on the road to maintain their short-lived title challenge.

The Blues have lost almost as many games as they have won away at the time of writing (seven wins, six defeats), dropping 22 points on their travels. That includes a wretched 2-0 defeat at Ipswich - the Tractor Boys' first home win of the season - and a 3-0 thumping at the hands of Brighton at the Amex Stadium. It took them until April 20 to triumph away from Stamford Bridge in 2025.

Champions Liverpool have lost just once away from Anfield in the Premier League this season, a loss inflicted by Fulham during the run-in when the title was already more or less assured. Otherwise, a record of 11 wins and five draws underpinned their unexpected tilt.

This is a clear area for improvement if Chelsea are going to make good on the early promise they showed in 2024-25 and mount a sustained title push next time around.

Chelsea's problems aren't all on the pitch; something the club has been dearly missing in recent seasons is a synergy between the fans, the man in the dugout and the players, with the enforced takeover in 2022 and subsequent upheaval, wild spending and underwhelming results overseen by the Todd Boehly-Clearlake Capital ownership resulting in a malaise setting in at that has often drifted into toxicity.

There has regularly been a hostile atmosphere at Stamford Bridge in recent months, as Maresca's side continue to toil in the battle to secure a top-five place after that alarming downturn in form before Christmas. The Italian tactician arguably didn't help by insisting his side were never in the title race. Some supporters even took to the streets in February to make their feelings known about how the club is being run.

Despite the exit of much-loved and revered head coach Jurgen Klopp and questions being raised of Slot being named his successor, there is a sense that everyone at Liverpool pulled in the same direction under the German's replacement, and while the Dutchman's strong start helped, the Reds' season was undoubtedly boosted by their renowned support being fully behind them from the outset, culminating in the joyous celebrations in and around Anfield following the win over Tottenham last weekend.

It's hard to imagine those kinds of scenes at the Bridge anytime soon, but there were signs the fans were coming back onside during Chelsea's high-flying start to the campaign. It might take a strong opening to 2025-26 to bring them round again, and Maresca must harness that positive energy if he gets the opportunity.

But what does Maresca himself think Chelsea need to close the gap? In that regard, the head coach's stance has remained consistent. "In terms of the gap [between Chelsea and Liverpool], it is there, you can see this clearly," he said ahead of Sunday's clash.

"My feeling is we are [moving] in the right direction and hopefully this gap can be smaller and smaller and smaller. The difference is they have been consistent compared to us. For part of the season we were very good, and then we lost some games. This has probably been the main reason why. And also in terms of experienced players that know how to win games and these kinds of things, I think they have something more compared to us."

He added: "For sure, if you want to close the gap with these kind of clubs then you have to do things. 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."

It might be an unpopular take among sections of an impatient fanbase that is desperate for a return of the glory days, but in the short-term, at least, sticking with Maresca is the best course of action.

His popularity has nosedived since the wheels fell off midway through the campaign, with his repeated claims that Chelsea weren't title challengers and barbed comments about the hostile Stamford Bridge atmosphere doing little to boost his approval rating.

But Chelsea would benefit massively from some stability going into the new season, rather than the upheaval of yet another new head coach being installed at the helm. There has been progress, after all, even if the signs of those forward steps have grown faint in the second half of the season.

Slot may have had far more success in his debut Premier League season, but he is also evidence that it is worth backing a relative rookie. No-one expected Liverpool to be champions come May, and if Chelsea take the right steps they could be the surprise package of 2025-26.