A fourth straight defeat in 10 days for Chelsea.
These are bruising times for two of the biggest-spending powerhouse clubs in English soccer.
Forget about challenging for the Premier League title, at this rate they are struggling to even qualify for the Champions League.
Liverpool's feeble title defence unravelled further on Saturday in a 2-1 loss at Brighton that extended the stuttering defending champions' winless run in the league to three matches.
Danny Welbeck scored both for Brighton at Amex Stadium, either side of Milos Kerkez's equaliser for Liverpool in their latest disjointed display under manager Arne Slot.
A few hours later, Chelsea were dispatched by Everton 3-0, completing a miserable week in which the team were also bundled out of the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain in a chastening 8-2 aggregate loss.
Liverpool are hanging onto fifth spot in the league — a point and a place ahead of Chelsea. The Premier League is highly likely to again have five qualification spots for next season's Champions League but even that might not be enough for the these two underperforming giants.
Liverpool have taken just one point from their last three league games and are a remarkable 21 points behind first-placed Arsenal with seven games left of the campaign.
The Reds became the first team since Chelsea in the 2017-18 season to lose 10 matches in a title defence.
"It's not good enough, no matter how many excuses I come up with," said Slot, whose position is coming under scrutiny less than a year after leading Liverpool to a record-tying 20th English top-flight title.
Among those excuses might be Liverpool's injury problems, which worsened when striker Hugo Ekitike hobbled off in the eighth minute with a leg problem.
Slot was already without star winger Mohamed Salah and goalkeeper Alisson Becker, who both got hurt this week, while Alexander Isak — signed for $A240 million last summer — has been out since December and hasn't been fully fit all season.
Still, few could have expected Liverpool's title defence to be so underwhelming when the club spent a record $A810 million in last summer's transfer window to bolster a championship-winning squad.
Watch out Liverpool and Chelsea, Everton are coming for your place in the top five.
Beto scored twice and Iliman Ndiaye curled a shot into the top corner for the third as Everton outfought Chelsea, who delivered a performance lacking in energy after their recent Champions League exertions.
Everton moved to seventh place and were only three points behind Liverpool and two behind Chelsea.
Chelsea have won just one of their last six games in the league and that was at third-placed Aston Villa — another team limping to the finish line this season.
Next-to-last Burnley slipped closer to relegation by squandering the lead and losing at Fulham 3-1.
Josh King, Harry Wilson and Raul Jimenez — with a stoppage-time penalty — scored for Fulham after Zian Flemming put Burnley ahead in the 60th.
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