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Arne Slot: Liverpool’s Premier League title defence is over, our focus is Champions League qualification | Football News
Arne Slot admits 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 match at the Emirates – live on Sky Sports.
Liverpool are unbeaten in eight Premier League games but Slot knows it would take something special for his side to retain their crown.
“It’s never nice to say that the title race is gone, because you never know what can happen in football,” Slot said in an exclusive interview with Sky Sports. “But the last thing we should talk about at this moment is the title race.
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Gary Neville believes Arsenal will win the Premier League title, after Chelsea held Manchester City to a 1-1 draw at the Etihad Stadium
“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.”
Asked if a drop in intensity from his side has been the reason for Liverpool’s underwhelming season, Slot admitted: “Yes and no, it’s a fair comment.”
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But Slot insists that at times Liverpool’s apparent lack of intensity is more down to the opposition and how they set up to nullify his side.
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.”
Despite admitting some of what Liverpool have done this season has been “so bad”, Slot remains optimistic for the second half of the campaign.
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Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta talks ahead of their game against Liverpool
“If things click and that will happen, then this group of players is capable of much more than the results are telling us now,” he said.
“We’ve shown we can beat a lot of teams if everyone is available. We’ve beaten Arsenal at home, we’ve beaten Villa, Real Madrid, Inter Milan.
“But we’ve also shown that we haven’t had the consistency to win other games to make the league table look a bit nicer. But if everyone is available, this is a very talented and good group and we can win against everyone.”
With the January transfer window now open, Liverpool have the chance to add to Slot’s squad. They failed to sign Crystal Palace and England defender Marc Guehi in the summer and now face competition from rivals Manchester City.
Slot said: “I will definitely not make the mistake to talk about a player that’s been linked to another club and to give my opinion about that. I can talk for hours about our players, but not about players from other clubs. The focus is purely on the football side of things once again.”
