“Get Rio some water” – Ferdinand clashes with Owen Hargreaves in Liverpool, Chelsea debate | OneFootball

Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves have come to blows over who is the Premier League manager of the season so far.

Arne Slot took over from Jurgen Klopp in the summer and has take to life at Anfield like a duck to water, with Liverpool top of the Premier League and Champions League tables and in the semi-finals of the EFL Cup.

Maresca, meanwhile, also joined Chelsea in the summer after leading Leicester City to the Championship title. The Italian has so far guided the Blues to third in the Premier League table (at the time of writing) and top of the Uefa Conference League with a perfect record.

Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves clash

Enzo Maresca and Arne Slot. (Photo by Carl Recine/Getty Images)

Hargreaves is a firm believer that Slot is the manager of the season so far.

“He’s done unbelievable,” he said of Maresca on Ferdinand’s YouTube channel (via talkSPORT), then adding: “But I’m saying if you’re top of the league, best team in the Champions League, it’s Arne.”

Hargreaves’ former Man Utd and England teammate Ferdinand replied: “No, no, no, I think he’s great. But I’m saying the level of change within the clubs is very different. [Maresca] has closed that margin more.”

He continued: “[Slot] has had a wonderfully settled ship. The ownership in Chelsea is so fragmented, it’s in the papers every other day.

“[Slot] has had a new sporting director but it’s not unstable. It’s still a stable environment. There’s no noise. When Klopp was there, there was no noise.

“I’m fighting Maresca’s corner. He’s had more fires to put out than probably half of the league. And he’s stomped them out.”