Mikel Arteta and Arne Slot
© IMAGO - Mikel Arteta and Arne Slot
Mikel Arteta offered up a warning to Liverpool as the Premier League title race heats up. The Arsenal boss should know better.
Liverpool are sitting pretty on top of both the Premier League and UEFA Champions League right now. It's been a flying start under Arne Slot, with the Dutchman taking to the role flawlessly.
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In our eyes, certainly, the Reds are the best team in the world. Who challenges them for that honour right now?
They're winning at will (a statement that hopefully holds up after Manchester City's trip to Anfield) and are favourites for major trophies.
And yet, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has a warning for them. He's letting Liverpool know that their good form is difficult to maintain - after all, Arsenal have 'been there before'.
“We’ve been there and to sustain it for 10 months is extremely difficult, everything has to go your way, and sadly when you think you have it, one day it collapses," he told reporters on Saturday.
"It can happen at any moment and we have to be ready for that.”
Liverpool need not listen.
Liverpool don't need Arteta's advice
The idea that Arteta would say 'we've been there' when talking about Liverpool needing to maintain form in a title race is bizarre. He's not the authority here.
Liverpool have several first-team stars who have actually been there. Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, Ibrahima Konate, Andy Robertson, Kostas Tsimikas, Curtis Jones, Mohamed Salah, Diogo Jota and Luis Diaz were all a part of the team that got 92 points in 2021/22.
That is three more points than Arsenal's peak under Arteta. It's two more points than any Arsenal side has ever managed.
And for most of those players named, it's the third most points they've achieved. Alisson, Alexander-Arnold, Van Dijk, Robertson and Salah all achieved 97 points in 2019 and 99 points in 2020.
They've been there in a way Arsenal and Arteta have never been. They also know, for a fact, that it's possible to go an entire Premier League season without that drop-off.
They've done it, after all. Twice.
The Arteta lecture isn't necessary and quite honestly, it's one that doesn't even make sense. Perhaps Liverpool do drop off and go through a period of form - but the idea that the Arsenal boss predicts it as a fact is ridiculous.
The Reds know full well it isn't a fact. It's possible to maintain this form in a way Arsenal could only dream of. It's happened before.
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