'Still number one' - Arne Slot sends strong title reminder to Arsenal ahead of Man City vs Liverpool

Liverpool boss Arne Slot is not concentrating on Arsenal after his side’s slip-up against Aston Villa on Wednesday night. The Reds dropped two points with a draw against Villa, and that means Arsenal are now trailing by eight points with a game in-hand.

On top of that, while the Gunners face West Ham this weekend, Liverpool face Manchester City in a much more difficult clash, with the Citizens in resurgent form aside from their Champions League defeat to Real Madrid on Wednesday night.

Asked about what he has learned from his players of late, Slot said in his press conference on Thursday: “You always learn in every game but I see mostly the same things. So, these players are able to play every three days on the best of their capabilities in terms of physique. If you saw yesterday again, I mostly take Dom Szoboszlai as an example – what a work-rate for his third game in a row. Until the last, last second, he kept on running up and down, up and down, up and down. That's the only thing I can ask for and what the fans can ask for. And that we are then unlucky not to score our chances, that's football unfortunately.

“But we cannot accept – not the fans, nor me – that they don't give maximum effort. But that's what they constantly do and I assume that they will do again. But you never know the outcome because we face – with Villa, with Everton away – difficult opponents. The fixture list for us now is a few difficult ones in a row – that's what you have to accept. The good thing is that we are not behind someone, we are still number one and that's the good thing if you go into a run of games like this.”

Liverpool play after Arsenal this weekend, potentially adding pressure to their clash with City, and asked about that factor, Slot added: “I think the biggest question to be asked is from Man City because we face a strong team again, like we faced [at] Villa.

“Yeah, Arsenal plays before us but we know that doesn't make the game easier or more difficult than we have against City. We know we have 12 games to play and Arsenal has 13 games to play. If we constantly look at Arsenal or what other teams are doing, that would not help us. We already know how difficult it is to go to the Etihad, so we don't need Arsenal to get involved in that even more.”

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