Liverpool’s crisis deepens with another defeat; plus, more dropped points for Madrid

DCM Editorial Summary: This story has been independently rewritten and summarised for DCM readers to highlight key developments relevant to the region. Original reporting by ESPN India, click this post.

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What a weekend! After World Cup qualifying gave us plenty of drama over the past two weeks, Europe’s Big Five leagues kicked back into gear with a ton of talking points.

In England, the time off clearly didn’t help Liverpool too much in terms of fixing what’s wrong, as they staggered to a 3-0 home defeat against Nottingham Forest that put the league champions in the bottom half of the table. Oh, and Arsenal put four past their north London rivals, Tottenham, to cement their position atop the Premier League.

In Serie A, we got the delight of a Milan derby and a goalkeeping masterclass from Mike Maignan as the red side of the city enjoyed a 1-0 win. In LaLiga, Real Madrid turned in a dud of a performance in a 2-2 draw with Elche that keeps the title race firmly in the balance for the chasing pack.

Elsewhere we had talking points galore from Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Juventus, AS Roma, Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona. It’s Monday morning, so what better time for some musings? Let’s get into it.

– Can Slot stop Liverpool being worst Premier League champions?
– VAR Review: Murillo goal vs. Liverpool, Igor Jesus handball disallowed
– Ranking Ronaldo’s overhead kick goals for Real Madrid, Portugal, Al Nassr

The bad news for Liverpool is that it’s bad … and it can get worse

It can get better too, of course. Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at Anfield to Nottingham Forest — who, lest we forget, are already on their third manager of the 2025-26 season — leaves Liverpool in the bottom half of the table, but second-place Chelsea are just five points away. So let’s not panic. But let’s also acknowledge just how many things are going wrong for Arne Slot.

Don’t take my word for it. Ask his captain, Virgil van Dijk, who said: “At the moment, it is a mess. That’s just a fact.”

Slot, charged with integrating eight new first-teamers — five of them with reasonable expectations of starting — has yet to find a reasonable setup. The early run of wins fueled by late, improbable goals was fool’s gold, and to his credit, he recognized this and switched things up. The problem is, he hasn’t found the right formula yet, and it feels like trial and error.

That’s the meta issue, but there are plenty of individual ones, too. Alexander Isak, Liverpool’s “other” huge summer signing, has made eight appearances between the UEFA Champions League and Premier League and has thrown up a stinker nearly every time, scoring zero goals. Milos Kerkez looks lost and like someone playing out of position, at least in this team. Jeremie Frimpong has started one league game and is injured again. Florian Wirtz looks so much like a foreign object in the hole to the point