Arne Slott has admitted Liverpool are out of the Premier League title race and are instead focusing on Champions League qualification.
The defending Premier League champions are fourth and 14 points behind leaders Arsenal ahead of Thursday’s game at the Emirates Stadium. Sky Sports live broadcast.
Liverpool are unbeaten in eight Premier League games but Slott knows his side will need something special to retain their crown.
“It’s never good to say the title race is over because you never know what’s going to happen in football,” Slott said in an interview. sky sports. “But the last thing we need to talk about at this moment is the title race.
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Gary Neville believes Arsenal will win the Premier League after Chelsea drew 1-1 with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium.
“We know that our league position makes it very difficult to compete with Arsenal for the league title.
“Now our first focus is to finish in the top four or five to qualify for the Champions League and everything else we can still do – the Champions League, the FA Cup.
“If something happens that no one expected and probably has never happened before, we try to be prepared for that. But I don’t go to Arsenal thinking about competing for the title. We go to Arsenal thinking about winning a football game against a very strong team.”
Asked whether his side’s lack of concentration was to blame for Liverpool’s disappointing season, Slott admitted: “Yes and no. That’s a fair comment.”
Thursday, January 8th, 7pm
Kickoff at 8pm
However, Slott argues that Liverpool’s apparent lack of intensity at times is down to the opposition and how they have prepared to nullify his side.
Added Slot: “People will probably tell me that Villa and Brighton were the best to watch in the last nine games and I would completely agree with them, and I hope people with their opinions will see how Villa and Brighton played and how every other team we played against played against us.
“I don’t want us to play the way we have played in other games, but maybe that’s the next step we need to take. We don’t depend on what the opponent does, we always have just enough to implement a fast style, but it’s not there.”
Despite admitting that some of what Liverpool have done this season has been “too bad”, Slott remained optimistic about the second half of the campaign.
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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is being interviewed ahead of the game against Liverpool.
“If things work out and that happens, this group of players can do a lot more than what the results are telling us right now,” he said.
“We showed everyone that we can beat as many teams as possible. We beat Arsenal at home, we beat Villa, Real Madrid and Inter Milan.
“But we’ve also shown that we don’t have the consistency to be able to win other games to get a little better in the league standings. But if everyone can play, this is a very talented and good group and we can win against everyone.”
With the January transfer window now open, Liverpool have the opportunity to add to Slot’s squad. They failed to sign England defender Marc Guehi from Crystal Palace in the summer and now face competition from rivals Manchester City.
Slot said: “I will never make the mistake of talking about players linked to other clubs and giving my opinion about them. I can talk for hours about our players but I cannot talk about players from other clubs. The focus is once again purely on the football side.”
