Arne Slot believes Liverpool's elimination from last season's Champions League helped the club clinch the Premier League title.
The Liverpool boss has come under intense scrutiny this season with the club's title defence proving anything but formidable.
Liverpool are sixth in the Premier League table, 14 points off league leaders Arsenal and have been left licking their wounds in recent days after defeat by AFC Bournemouth on the south coast.
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Arne Slot offers theory on Liverpool's title win last season
Arne Slot is making his intentions clear this summer at Anfield
Arne Slot lifting the Premier League title(Image credit: Getty Images)
Amine Adli's stoppage time winner handed the Reds their seventh league defeat of the season, with the team currently winless in their last five Premier League matches.
Speaking ahead of Liverpool's final league phase fixture in this season's Champions League, Slot said, as quoted by the Daily Mail: "Again this is not going to be a popular opinion what I tell you now, maybe the reason we won the league last season is because we played Paris Saint-Germain. We had a week to prepare for league games [after going out of the Champions League]."
Arne Slot puts his right arm around Darwin Nunez with disconsolate Liverpool players around him following Liverpool's penalty shoot out defeat to PSG in the Champions League
Liverpool players were left disconsolate after defeat in the Round of 16(Image credit: Getty Images)
Liverpool were knocked out at the Round of 16 last season after finishing top of the league phase standings with seven wins and one defeat from those initial eight games.
PSG would go on to win the competition, defeating Aston Villa, Arsenal and Inter Milan en route to their maiden Champions League triumph.
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Slot's Liverpool were, however, 15 points clear at the top of the Premier League table before their second leg against PSG last March. The Reds had also won 21 of their 29 league games up to that point, losing once, despite competing on multiple fronts.
This season, Liverpool are on course to finish in the league phase's top eight, which secures automatic passage to the Champions League Round of 16.
It'll mean the Reds face two fewer fixtures than they would have been expected to play, had they finished between 9th and 24th.