Chelsea to honour champions Liverpool with guard of honour
Chelsea head coach Enzo Maresca believes Liverpool fully deserve the traditional gesture of respect, saying that receiving such an honour is a right earned by champions.
Ahead of their upcoming clash, Chelsea will form a guard of honour for Liverpool, who recently clinched the Premier League title with four games to spare. Maresca hopes this act of respect will also serve as inspiration for his own players.
Last Sunday at Anfield, Liverpool thrashed Tottenham Hotspur 5-1 to secure the title, finishing 15 points clear of second-placed Arsenal. With this triumph, the Reds matched Manchester United’s record of 20 top-flight English league titles.
The upcoming match at Stamford Bridge will be Liverpool’s first outing as champions under new manager Arne Slot.
Though there’s no official rule requiring teams to provide a guard of honour to the champions, Maresca confirmed on Friday that his side will do so before kickoff.
“I think it’s a tradition — something you have to do, and we want to do it,” Maresca said. “First of all, they won the league, so it’s something they deserve. Hopefully, one day we can be the ones receiving it too.”
“I don’t think we need to see a guard of honour to understand how great it is to win the Premier League — we already know that. But maybe when our players stand there, they’ll think, ‘One day, I want to be in that position too.’”
Back in 2020, Liverpool players were denied the guard of honour experience due to COVID-19 restrictions, despite winning the title with seven games left under Jürgen Klopp. That season, however, they still received the gesture in the remaining matches — from clubs including Manchester City, Aston Villa, Brighton, Burnley, Arsenal, Chelsea, and Newcastle.
Chelsea also honoured Manchester City with a guard of honour last year after Pep Guardiola’s side secured the league title.
Chelsea, whose last Premier League crown came in the 2016–17 season, are currently battling to secure a top-five finish and a place in next season’s UEFA Champions League. They sit fifth with 60 points from 34 matches — level on points with Nottingham Forest, who are just behind them.
