One Liverpool player who’d been heavily linked with an exit from the club during the summer now appears to have firmly won over the Anfield hierarchy.Having made only 14 appearances in a personally disappointing first season with the Reds, there were abundant reports of Serie A interest in Federico Chiesa earlier this year, and for a while it seemed quite likely that the Italian forward would return to his homeland.However, despite being yet to start a Premier League match this term, the 27-year-old has been involved a bit more frequently, featuring in six games thus far and coming off the bench to score against Bournemouth and Crystal Palace (Transfermarkt).Chiesa set to stay at Liverpool beyond JanuaryAccording to Football Insider, the Italy international is set to remain at Liverpool for the foresseable future, with a January exit now deemed highly unlikely.It was originally expected that he would leave Anfield in the winter, but having made an impact with the minutes he’s been handed so far this season, he now appears to have earned the trust of Arne Slot, who added him to the Reds’ Champions League squad after the ACL injury to Giovanni Leoni.(Photo by Alex Broadway/Getty Images)Does Chiesa deserve more game-time at Liverpool?Despite still being unable to carve out a starting berth on Merseyside, Chiesa is one of the most popular players among the LFC fan base, and among the champions’ squad, only Hugo Ekitike and Mo Salah have more goal contributions than him so far in 2025/26 (Transfermarkt).The 27-year-old has made the most of the game-time which has been given to him, and ITV commentator Seb Hutchinson has rightly described him as a ‘top-level talent‘.Danny Murphy has even called for Slot to start the Italian on the left flank instead of the ‘underwhelming’ Cody Gakpo, and while both players have two goals and assists each at this stage of the campaign, Chiesa has accrued that tally in just 20% of the game-time that the Dutchman has had.Slot still doesn’t seem to trust Liverpool’s number 14 to start in the top flight or Champions League, but if the former Juventus man continues to make an impact off the bench, the case for starting him might become impossible to ignore.What does now appear certain is that he’s beyond the stage of fighting for his Anfield future, and while some of his teammates might leave the club in January, the Italian will surely be staying put for the remainder of this season at least.You can watch Slot’s post-Chelsea press conference via Empire of the Kop on YouTube: The post Liverpool won’t sell ‘top-level’ ace in January despite making zero PL starts so far this season appeared first on The Empire of The Kop.