'Except for this one' - Arne Slot gives strong response to Liverpool suggestions after Man City win

Arne Slot

Arne Slot is adamant Liverpool will not take anything for granted after extending their lead at the Premier League summit with a memorable victory at outgoing champions Manchester City

First-half goals from Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai earned the Reds their first top-flight win at the Etihad in almost a decade with a 2-0 triumph on Sunday afternoon.

With nearest challengers Arsenal having lost 1-0 at home to West Ham United the previous day, Liverpool are now 11 points clear

But Slot pointed to the competitive nature of the Premier League when rejecting suggestions it had now become the Reds’ title to lose.

Slot

“You can ask every single question you want but many times I’ve said it is so hard to judge the league table before every single game is played,”

“In my opinion, Villa away and City away are two very, very, very, very difficult games so you can drop points there.

“We are in a good position but we also know how hard it was for us to win against Wolves.

“Now we play Newcastle, we drew 3-3 over there which was in my opinion also a good result although after 89 minutes we were 3-2 up.”

“In every other league, having a lead like this would be very comfortable. Except for this one as every single game gives you challenges. Even Plymouth Argyle gave us a lot of challenges.”

A superb defensive effort helped Liverpool repel City in the second half with goalkeeper Alisson Becker having barely a save of note to make

Slot added:

“If you play away at the Etihad and win there it is always a big win no matter what the league table looks like.

“If you play away against a Pep (Guardiola) team it is almost impossible to have more ball possession.”

“We knew we had to defend a lot, and that’s what we did really well. Some good moments in the counter-attack led to us winning the game.

“The fans can sing whatever they want – I think they have sang it quite a lot already – but we know as a team how hard we have to work for every single win.

“It is only three days ago someone asked me if we had a dip on Wednesday (in the 2-2 draw at Villa). I don’t believe that, and I’m calm now about this one.”

And asked if he could have imagined Liverpool being in their current position at the start of the season,

Slot added:

“You never think like that. If you start somewhere you don’t think where you are in terms of points at the end of the season.

“What we do know is no-one saw us a title contender at the beginning of the season.

“And no-one in the world of football would have expected City to be not so close to the one that leads the league. But we all know why. They had many injuries, they had a difficult period.

“But today, while the result doesn’t show you that, you could see how good they are as a team and how difficult they are to play against.”