Arne Slot has expressed satisfaction with his Liverpool team’s performance, stating they are “matching his expectations” following their impressive start to the season. The Reds currently sit at the top of the Premier League, boasting seven wins from their first eight matches and a perfect record in their three Champions League games.
As Slot prepares for a challenging encounter against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium, he acknowledged the opportunity to extend Liverpool’s lead to seven points over the Gunners, who are missing several key players.
He noted, “If you look at the last two seasons, Arsenal were far ahead of us, but also above Chelsea, whom Liverpool beat 2-1 last week. So you would assume that playing Arsenal would be even more difficult, but let’s see at the end of the season where Chelsea and Arsenal both are.”
Slot reflected on the challenges of away games, particularly against a strong opponent like Arsenal, stating, “Normally you would expect, especially because it’s also an away game, that this one is even more difficult than Chelsea at home, and we all saw how difficult Chelsea at home was.”
Last season, Liverpool struggled against top competitors, taking just three points from their four encounters with champions Manchester City and Arsenal, who finished second.
The Dutch manager emphasized the importance of earning points against potential rivals, saying, “Nobody knows in this early stage who is going to be your biggest competitor, but I think we all know that Arsenal will be one of them.”
When asked about his personal targets for the season, Slot admitted he hadn’t focused on specific point totals, stating, “It wasn’t like I was on my holiday thinking, ‘OK, after 10 games how many points do I want to have?’ No, the only thing I was thinking of was how am I going to try to bring the best out of this team.”
He added, “I didn’t have expectations coming in when it comes to the amount of points we needed to have after one, two, three or 10 games. But there were expectations from me about the way I wanted to see the team playing, and I think that is matching my expectations at the moment.”
Liverpool will be without injured forward Diogo Jota for the trip to London, and goalkeeper Alisson Becker also remains sidelined.