EPL: Slot targets Arsenal scalp after flying start for Liverpool

As he is ready for a difficult test against Arsenal, Arne Slot claims that his Liverpool team is "matching his expectations" following their fantastic start to the season.

With seven victories in their first eight games, the Reds are leading the Premier League and have already won all three of their Champions League fixtures.

He informed reporters on Friday that he anticipated a difficult test against Mikel Arteta's team, who are without some important players, at the Emirates.

Arsenal was both well ahead of us and above Chelsea, whom Liverpool defeated 2-1 last week, he remarked, referring to the previous two seasons.

"Under normal circumstances, playing Arsenal would be even more challenging, but we'll know at the conclusion of the season where Chelsea and Arsenal both are.

“Normally you would expect, especially because it’s also an away game, that this one is even more difficult than Chelsea at home, and we all saw how difficult Chelsea at home was.”

Last season Liverpool took just three points from their four games against champions Manchester City and Arsenal, who finished second.
Nobody can predict who will be your biggest rival at this early stage, but I believe we all know that Arsenal will be one of them. "We all know that taking points from your competitors," Slot added.

In his first season at Anfield since replacing Jurgen Klopp, the Dutchman was questioned about whether he was hitting the goals he had set for himself.

"I wasn't on vacation thinking, 'Well, how many points do I want to have after ten games?'" he remarked.

"No, all I could think of was how I could try to get the most out of this team, like Jurgen has done for so long, and how can we continue that, and how am I going to do the individual meetings with the players, the team meetings with the players, and you don’t think about points.”

He added: “I didn’t have expectations coming in when it comes to the amount of points we needed to have after one, two, three or 10 games.

“But there were expectations from me the way I wanted to see the team playing, and I think that is matching my expectations at the moment.”

Injured forward Diogo Jota will miss the trip to London while goalkeeper Alisson Becker remains out of action.