Round-upArne Slot press conference: Title emotions, Chelsea, Harvey Elliott future and more

The Liverpool head coach spoke to the media ahead of this weekend's visit to Chelsea, which is the Reds' first outing since being confirmed as 2024-25 Premier League champions.

Covering a wide range of topics during the briefing, see the standout comments from Slot below…

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On the messages received after winning the title...

Of course a lot of messages and they are nine out of 10 times the same but they come from a good heart and it's always nice to get these messages. I've tried to answer all of them, not by sending big messages but I've tried to answer all of them. It's been amazing, especially Sunday. It was maybe for all the Liverpool fans but for many of them one of the best days of their lives, and I think it was the same for me.

The way the whole day went, arriving at the stadium, how intense the fans already were. Then during the game, going 1-0 behind so it even felt like, 'Oh, they are not going to give it to us. We have to work for it.' Scoring the goals, seeing how much it meant to the players but also to the fans and for me was really special to be part of.

On who was the most famous person he received a message from...

I assume that's Jürgen [Klopp]. What did he have to say? What most of them said. So that was congratulations and now you know how special of a club it is, now you are part of the history as well – these kind of things. He was really happy for me, for the players, for the staff, for the fans, like we all know Jürgen [would be]. Maybe I forget a few but I think he was the most famous one.

On the remaining games in the season...

It's nice that we play some very strong teams with Chelsea, Arsenal, Brighton and [Crystal] Palace, so that gives immediately the challenge to those games. It's the end of the season but we also have to look at this as the start of next season already. It's Chelsea away first.

We played them earlier on in the season and I'm completely surprised, not shocked but surprised, if I look at the gap we have with them at the moment, because at that moment in time they were the better team on the pitch. But we found a way to win and that is a quality that we didn't need a lot because mostly we were the better team on the pitch. But in the game we had to suffer more than any other game maybe. So to be so many points ahead of them is a big compliment for everyone here at this club.

On Harvey Elliott's future at Liverpool…

I think first of all it's very important that players who are here with us like to stay. That's a big compliment to everyone working here. Harvey is one of the players that hasn't had as much playing time as he maybe deserves. But like some others he is in competition with so many good players that mainly [I] have chosen other players. Also, partly because he was injured for a long time, and I've been honest with him.

The first part after he came back from his injury, he wasn't the same as he was before his injury. But the last few months he's back to his old level again but there was no need for me to start with different players. I think if you look at the amount of minutes he had in the last one or two months and the time before you can see it goes up already. That tells you that we like – I like – him more now than I did when he came back from his injury in the first month.

• Conor Bradley fitness update ahead of Chelsea

On how much of an advantage in terms of planning does winning the league early give him…

There are so many things that have influence on next season. Is it an advantage yes or no that some teams go to the Club World Cup? I think the main advantage of winning the league is that until now if I spoke to new players we wanted to bring in I always told them that our fans are really special [and] that it's special to play at this club. I think that was not even necessary to tell them in the past but after Sunday I don't think I ever have to tell anyone again how special our fans are because that was unbelievable.

Not only because of how much emotions there were but them not coming onto the pitch. The amount of times I see teams winning the league and there's a pitch invasion and after two minutes everyone is like, 'Yeah, what are we doing here? Let's go inside.' But they all stayed in the stands and the celebrations were incredible. But not even after the game, also during the game. Winning the league [and] having these fans I think is a big attraction to every player we want to bring in and that's definitely helpful. But if it's helpful that we won the league now already for next season, that is so hard to tell you.