After Chelsea’s defeat against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday, there came another chastening result for a Premier League side on Wednesday as Liverpool was hammered 4–1 away to Napoli. The Premier League’s net spend may have been 27 times greater than that of any other league this summer, but that is not guarantee of success, no security against embarrassment.
Liverpool has been nowhere near its best so far this season, but this was the worst performance so far. Perhaps it is the consequence of injuries and a hangover from last season, when it came so close to a quadruple, costing it a little of the sharpness so necessary to the hard-pressing style of play favored by Jürgen Klopp.