Image Credits: Imago Images
Premier League champions Liverpool travel to London sitting fourth in the top flight, 14 points behind leaders Arsenal, after a challenging title defence under Arne Slot.
Another win for the Gunners, who have lost just twice all season, would strengthen Mikel Arteta’s bid to win the league for the first time since Arsenal’s ‘Invincibles’ season in 2003-04.
Arsenal’s title push was boosted on Wednesday as Manchester City drew 1-1 with Brighton. The Gunners have bounced back from last month’s defeat to Aston Villa, winning their last five matches to sit six points clear of both City and Aston Villa.
Liverpool, meanwhile, are unbeaten in their last nine games across all competitions, but draws against Sunderland, Leeds, and Fulham have prevented them from securing a solid top-four position.
Ahead of the game, Slot admitted Liverpool are out of the title race and are focusing on Champions League qualification. He also acknowledges it would take something extraordinary for Liverpool to retain the crown.
“It’s never nice to say that the title race is gone, because you never know what can happen in football,” Slot told Sky Sports. “But the last thing we should talk about at this moment is the title race.
“We know that our league position makes it very hard to compete with Arsenal for the league title. Our first focus now is on a top-four, top-five finish to qualify for the Champions League. And all the other things we can still play for, for the Champions League, for the FA Cup.
“And if something happens that no one would expect and probably never has happened before, then we try to make sure we are ready for that. But I don’t go to Arsenal thinking about the title race. We go to Arsenal thinking about winning a game of football against a very strong team.”
Slot added: “In the last nine games, people would probably tell me, and I would completely agree with them, that Villa and Brighton were the nicest games to watch.
“And I would like these people that have their opinion to see how Villa and Brighton played, and how all the other teams we faced played us.
“It’s not like I want us to play in the way we played in some other games. But maybe that’s the next step we have to make, that we don’t rely on what the opposition does, we’re just good enough to always implement a fast style, but we’re not there.”
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