Liverpool manager Arne Slot insists his reigning English champions can still do “special things” this season as they prepare to face Premier League leaders Arsenal following a faltering start to their title defence.<\/p>\n
Slot’s men head to the Emirates for Thursday’s clash in fourth place in the table, but 14 points adrift of the Gunners.<\/p>\n
However, following on from a run of nine defeats in 12 games in all competitions, Liverpool are unbeaten in their last nine — although that sequence includes four draws.<\/p>\n
Those draws include a goalless stalemate against Leeds and a 2-2 share of the spoils with Fulham in their first two Premier League fixtures of 2026.<\/p>\n
“It is nine games unbeaten but we have definitely had two draws too many,” Slot told a pre-match press conference on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Slot, who guided Liverpool to an impressive title triumph in his first season in charge at Anfield after succeeding Jurgen Klopp, added: “Where are we? I think I’ve said so many times that the answer to that question is we aren’t where we want to be, but I feel we have a very talented squad.<\/p>\n
“If everyone’s available and ready, then I think we can do special things.”<\/p>\n
– ‘A lot to play for’ –
\nThey certainly gave that impression earlier in the season when Liverpool beat Arsenal 1-0 at Anfield in August.<\/p>\n
However, a crisis up front, in terms of personnel, casts doubt over their achieving the double over the Gunners.<\/p>\n
Hugo Ekitike is a major doubt after missing the Fulham draw because of a hamstring problem.<\/p>\n
The Reds are also without Alexander Isak through injury, while Mohamed Salah remains at the Africa Cup of Nations with Egypt.<\/p>\n
Slot said he hoped his side would become more consistent.<\/p>\n
“We haven’t had the consistency but we’ve already beaten some very good teams, so that tells you the talent is definitely there but the consistency isn’t,” he said.<\/p>\n
They have recorded some notable victories, home successes against Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid and a 5-1 romp away to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Champions League.<\/p>\n
But on the flip side, Liverpool have suffered three-goal defeats at home three times this season, against Crystal Palace, Nottingham Forest and PSV Eindhoven.<\/p>\n
“This club has shown so many times that when they don’t have the greatest form in the league, they are still able to win other trophies,” said Slot.<\/p>\n
“We just haven’t had consistency against the clubs where we would usually win which adds to the fact that we are now 14 points behind Arsenal.”<\/p>\n
They now face a renewed test of their form against the Gunners, with Arsenal bidding to be crowned champions of England for the first time in more than 20 years.<\/p>\n
“There’s a lot of importance on this match because we still have a lot to play for in the Premier League,” said Slot.<\/p>\n
“We are also in the FA Cup and the Champions League, which are knockout games and games where you face teams like Arsenal, so it will be a chance for us to see where we are in a one-off game.<\/p>\n
“We are going up against a very, very good Arsenal team.”<\/p>\n
The Dutchman said the daunting things for his side is Arsenal are the “complete package”.<\/p>\n
“For that reason, in my opinion, they deserve to be on top this season.”<\/p>\n
jdg\/pi<\/p>\n
\u00a9 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Liverpool manager Arne Slot insists his reigning English champions can still do “special things” this season as they prepare to face Premier League leaders Arsenal following a faltering start to their title defence. Slot’s men head to the Emirates for Thursday’s clash in fourth place in the table, but 14 points adrift of the Gunners. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23671,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"subtitle":"","format":"standard","override":[{"template":"7","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"left-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"topbottom","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"0","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"jnews_post_split":{"post_split":[{"template":"1","tag":"h2","numbering":"asc","mode":"normal","first":"0","enable_toc":"0","toc_type":"normal"}]},"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[748,424,289,521,425,2684],"class_list":["post-23670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag--en","tag-eng","tag-fbl","tag-liverpool","tag-pr","tag-slot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23670"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23673,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23670\/revisions\/23673"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23671"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.iq\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}