At the start of the Premier League season, Arsenal was viewed as Manchester City’s primary challenger for the title, but Liverpool quickly emerged as the main contender. Arne Slot has ensured that the transition at Anfield after Jürgen Klopp’s era has gone almost unnoticed, with the Reds trailing the leaders and defending champions by just one point after nine rounds. Liverpool has comfortably dealt with weaker teams, with Nottingham Forest handing them their only loss so far. In clashes with the big clubs, Slot’s side has defeated Manchester United and Chelsea, but one can question those victories, considering the current strength of those clubs. But it‘s now a different story when they managed a draw at the Emirates. And the Liverpool boss was eager to reply to the ‘soft fixture‘ claims in the media.Slot passes his first Arsenal derby as Salah scores an equalizer”What surprises me the most is that people say we’ve had an easy start to the season. It surprises me because many told me when I arrived that there’s no such thing as an easy game in the Premier League, yet suddenly, apparently, there are. We faced Arsenal, whose coach has been here for four or five years doing an outstanding job, with a team that plays in so many different ways. They always line up in a 4-3-3 formation, but their positioning on the field allows them, as I once said, to play in 40 different variations. So, you make a plan based on the opponent’s expected setup, but you can’t prepare players for all 40 variations. They played with a false nine, which they often do, but they weren’t regularly bringing the fullbacks inside this time. We could have prepared better for the second half based on what we saw in the first. We took a bit more risk, but I think the main thing was that we put in more energy. We started pressing more aggressively from the start, putting them in situations where their players’ qualities couldn’t really shine” explained the Dutchman.”What you’re doing is using quite difficult English words” 😂Arne Slot was lost with this journalist’s question. pic.twitter.com/CwlRMJ9bML— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) October 23, 2024 It also didn‘t go unnoticed that Slot received a yellow card, his second one this season. Unlike the first time, Liverpool boss revealed it was a mistake by the official.“Last time I said I completely deserved a yellow card. This time, I don’t think I did. I said after so many times they were on the floor, which can happen in football — I don’t blame them for that — but they always fell down after they had ball possession. That took the energy out of the game in my opinion. I said to Ibrahima Konate: “This is a f*****g joke”. The fourth official thought I said to him: “You are a f***ing joke”. So that is definitely not what I said. But I got a yellow for that so now I am on two. I have to be careful now“ he admitted.##NAJAVA_MECA_8444460##
