6 games will determine Liverpool's summer as Arne Slot given 69 percent verdict

Liverpool has six games remaining this season and one simple aim: to get back into the Champions League — but it also needs to improve the mood heading into the summer

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot has endured a tough season(Image: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images)

Everton, Crystal Palace, Manchester United, Chelsea, Aston Villa and Brentford. After Liverpool was eliminated from the Champions League by Paris Saint-Germain, those are the only fixtures remaining for Arne Slot's men this term.

Currently four points clear of Chelsea and therefore in the final Champions League position in the Premier League standings, Liverpool is in a strong position to achieve its minimum aim from here. But the run-in is a tricky one.

Game four of six — Chelsea at Anfield — could be decisive. By the time Liverpool plays Aston Villa and Brentford, their finishing positions for this season might have already been confirmed, or they may still be fighting.

It is therefore impossible to know for sure exactly how hard the final stretch of matches will be for Liverpool, but three or four wins — especially if one of those is against Chelsea — should be enough.

As it stands, Opta's supercomputer has Liverpool at just over 69 percent likely to finish inside the top five and therefore be playing Champions League soccer again in 2026/27.

Clearly, being in UEFA's top competition will have an impact on how this season is viewed. Get in, and the current campaign can be written off and forgotten about, to an extent, assuming there is a reset in the summer. Miss out, and the ramifications will be lasting.

Slot is bracing himself for a big summer(Image: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)

Being in the Europa League, as Arne Slot has already admitted this season, would have economic impacts. That could make the summer transfer window harder.

More important even than that, not being in the Champions League might start to change the perception of Liverpool again.

Last summer, when the likes of Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak were enticed, dropping down a level in terms of European competition was not something they would have thought they needed to consider.

And regardless of the actual outcome — Champions League or no Champions League — there needs to be a vibe change at Anfield to make fans believe that next season can be a positive one.

A strong finish to this season would lead into the next. While Liverpool lost 4-0 on aggregate to PSG and there was a clear gulf between the two sides, it was significant, for instance, that the Reds were clapped off — and not booed off — at the end.

With games against Everton, Chelsea and Manchester United all big in terms of the points and the occasion during the next month or so, the results and performances in those will go a long way to determining how this summer looks.

Should Slot's men make a couple of statements and qualify for the Champions League with something to spare, that would offer hope that things can head in the right direction again.

End the year with a whimper, though, even if stumbles from Chelsea and others were ultimately to let Liverpool off the hook, and it could be a long off-season of nervous chatter regarding the brightness of the future.