Pep Guardiola will manage his 1,000th game in football against Liverpool on Sunday afternoon - and Arne Slot is looking forward to the challenge.
Arne Slot watches on from the touchline.
Arne Slot has aimed a dig at some of his Premier League counterparts.
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Arne Slot has aimed a thinly-veiled dig at Arsenal - and other Premier League rivals - ahead of Liverpool's match against Manchester City. The Premier League champions will face Pep Guardiola's side at the Etihad Stadium this weekend as they each look to catch the Gunners in the title race.
Arsenal have established a healthy lead at the top of the table, having won each of their last five matches. The north London outfit could, also, extend their advantage to nine points before Sunday afternoon's heavyweight bout with a victory against Sunderland.
Slot has relished the chance to lock horns with Guardiola, describing his team as a 'joy to watch' - unlike others. Speaking to Sky Sports, the Reds boss said: "You're always looking forward to watching his team play.
"When you are analysing every opponent, it's always nice when you play against his teams because then you have the privilege to watch five, six, seven games of his team and you never get bored.
"At least I never get bored because his team always have a very good and clear idea in ball possession, they always try to make the people happy. It's a joy to watch where so many other games are not, in my opinion, a joy to watch anymore.
"It's become more [about] time-wasting and things I don't like that much about the game, but which are very good tools to use to make it difficult for other teams if they play against you.
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"It's a new tactic in football, I would say, but this is something Pep's teams hardly do. And, of course, the Barcelona team was unbelievable. Hoping they would play on a Sunday night at 8pm, so there was one thing to look forward to at the end of the weekend.
"Then when he went to his other teams, he also invented things like the inverted full-back. It's always something special if you watch a game on one of his teams. A lot of managers win - but in the style he has won his trophies - that is why he stands out when compared to many others.
"I wonder if there are many managers that start their career now that will reach 1,000 [games], especially at the level that he's worked at, because it was probably already very hard to achieve that and there's a lot of sacrifices coming with that."
Pep Guardiola gestures to Man City fans.
Man City manager Pep Guardiola is no stranger to this intense fixture.
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Jamie Carragher made a similar point earlier in the week, and Gary Neville disagreed. Speaking on The Overlap's Stick to Football podcast, the Manchester United legend said: "Carra said the other night on Monday Night Football... I thought that it was really interesting, because, to be fair, I disagree with the point, but he's not here - and I wish he was here... he said he hates long throws and somebody else said it yesterday. They hate long throws. I'm like, I love long throws."
On Tuesday morning, the former Liverpool defender clarified his comments. Carragher said: "For the 100th time, I didn't say that I hate set-pieces or long throws! What I don't like is every team taking long throws and the time it's taking out of the game.
"I totally get teams doing it who struggle and lack the quality of getting the ball in the box. I also like seeing how teams cope with them.
"But teams that have great technical players and have spent hundreds of millions on them should be getting the ball in play as quickly as they can to get these players on the ball. I'm no football snob, but this is taking the game backwards!"