By LEWIS STEELE, FOOTBALL REPORTER
Published: 17:30 EST, 7 January 2026 | Updated: 17:30 EST, 7 January 2026
Things move on very fast in football. Just look around the Premier League.
Pull up the nominees for last season’s manager of the year. Nuno Espirito Santo could walk on the River Trent after leading Nottingham Forest to Europe but, six months on, has been sacked by them and is now clinging on by his fingernails to his next job at West Ham.
The Hammers have gone from winning a European trophy to looking at the League One promotion race to see who they may be playing next season in the Championship if they don’t claw back a seven-point deficit (Lincoln away would be a fun day out, at least).
Also on that list is Thomas Frank, who has a mountain to climb to earn the trust of Tottenham fans. Vitor Pereira, too. Remember him? ‘First points then pints,’ he used to say at Wolves who won eight games from February to April under him and then, er, none for the rest of 2025.
And then there is Arne Slot. The Dutchman won that award, ultimately, for one of the best debut seasons we have ever seen on our shores. When he accepted the prize, his team had won the league with a 10-point gap to Arsenal, even after being winless in the final four league games.
Now, as Slot takes his Reds team down to the Emirates, he stands 14 points behind the Gunners and all the money is on that extending to 17 on Thursday night, especially with Liverpool’s top scorer Hugo Ekitike a big doubt with a hamstring issue.
It was just six months ago that Arne Slot lifted the Premier League trophy and was named manager of the season
But this campaign has - surprisingly - been a struggle, though Slot believes his side have deserved more
There are mitigating factors to the big hangover from winning the league for Slot and Co. Chief among them – something that should be mentioned in any analysis – is the tragic loss of Diogo Jota and we can never measure how much such grief has impacted this group of young men.
Teething problems for several new signings has been an issue and £125million Alexander Isak being ruled out for three months certainly does not help. Nor does Mohamed Salah’s form nosediving before he jetted off to the Africa Cup of Nations. Injuries have stalked their season.
A run of four wins in 15 games in the autumn proved to be the nadir of a full-blown crisis. Since then, the Reds have gone unbeaten in nine – though it has been a rather insipid and uninspiring streak that has eased but far from ended scrutiny on the boss.
Slot has altered his system to shore up the defence and pack the midfield, though it has led to detrimental attacking returns (though, to be fair, he always insists they are creating the same number of chances).
‘I agree that (steadying the ship) was the first thing that needed to happen but I didn't do that to try and play defensive football,’ he said yesterday. ‘That is the misconception. We always press the other team as high as we can up the pitch, all over the pitch.
‘And when we have the ball, we try to create as many chances as we can. I haven't gone to a style of football where I started to play with five at the back or we started to go all defending our own box. Not at all.
‘I did not change our style but teams have changed their style against us. Our style is not to steady the ship, go back and defend your own box for 90 minutes. Not at all.’
Slot’s biggest gripe is set-pieces. Just before New Year, dead-ball specialist Aaron Briggs was let go by the club. It was a shame, given he was hired in a different role, but something needed to give when looking at the statistics which the head coach references almost every week.
The Reds have already lost six Premier League games, more than they did in the entirety of last season
Slot won't admit it publicly, but he will want more out of his £116m midfielder Florian Wirtz
Mo Salah's worrying dip in form has also had an affect on the Merseyside giants' fortunes
Liverpool have conceded 13 set-piece goals in the Premier League and scored just three, according to Opta data. Thursday’s opponents Arsenal, on the other hand, have scored 12 and conceded five. In a sport influenced by fine margins, that is season-defining.
Slot watched Coventry versus Birmingham at the weekend (real football men know the EFL is where the fun happens) while relaxing and noticed that Frank Lampard's Championship pace-setters, like Arsenal, have scored eight more set-piece goals than anyone in the division.
It is easier said than done but it is one thing Slot has pinpointed as a way to close the gap on Arsenal again. Of their 20 games this season, he believes they have only been really outplayed in one – away at Manchester City when they had a goal incorrectly ruled out at 1-0 down.
‘Margins in football are really small,’ he added. ‘I’m not saying we deserve to be right up there with Arsenal. Not at all, but I can safely and fairly say we deserved more. In a normal world we would have had six, eight, nine points more – I’m talking about the late goals we’ve conceded.
‘I don’t think the gap between them and us is 14 points but they deserve to be above us because they definitely have had a better season than us. Of course one of the things that leads to such a big margin is something I’ve said 100 times already (set-pieces).’
Though he would not publicly admit it, Slot would like more from £116m summer signing Florian Wirtz and it will be interesting to see how important, if at all, Salah is when he returns from AFCON duty. Egypt play a tough quarter-final against Ivory Coast on Saturday night in Agadir.
Slot went to watch Coventry's clash with Birmingham over the weekend ahead of his side's away game against Arsenal on Thursday
Going to Arsenal, who he described as ‘the full package’ yesterday, with key personnel missing would see many managers – even the great Pep Guardiola did so earlier this year – play pragmatically.
Slot certainly will not do so, and said he was hurt by suggestions his football was ‘dull and boring’.
‘I find it really hard to hear but I would not completely disagree,’ said Slot. ‘I want to win as many trophies as I can but I think I am also known for the fact that my teams always try to play attacking football and I can only say they’re trying to do so.’
You live by the sword, you die by the sword, goes the old saying and it is true for many managers and the playing style they are wedded to. Ruben Amorim, Ange Postecoglou and many others have seen that come back to bite them.
Slot, manager of the year six months ago, will keep playing his way and the speed in which the sands have shifted between him and Arsenal in that time will give him confidence he can flip the narrative again.
But he is still on trial with many fans. A win at the Emirates would be a perfect way to silence some of those doubters.