‘Has to do with experience’ - Arne Slot fires Liverpool title warning to Arsenal

Liverpool head coach Arne Slot is adamant that his players will not lose concentration for Sunday’s match with bottom club Southampton - and potentially allow ground to close with Arsenal - despite two huge fixtures following next week.

Going into this weekend’s batch of fixtures, Liverpool led the Premier League table by five points, with Man City in second and Arsenal some nine points behind in fourth. The Reds have only conceded six times in 11 league matches and have recorded just one defeat.

After this weekend’s clash with Southampton, Liverpool face two huge matches against Real Madrid in the Champions League and Man City in the Premier League the following weekend.

Slot - whose team also heads the Champions League table - is sure his players will not let their eye off the ball and drop points in the title race despite next week’s two looming fixtures.

Speaking in Friday’s press conference, he said: "I am confident that (the players keeping their focus) will happen. For me it is not just to do with age.

“We do have a few older players but we also have quite a lot of them in the age group in between, but they are all experienced. They all play for their national team.”

Liverpool are the only club to disrupt Man City’s title dominance over the past seven years and were in the title race for most of last season. They ultimately tailed off to finish nine points adrift and seven points off Arsenal - but Slot says all of this experience holds Liverpool in good stead.

Slot added: “Last season, they [players] were competitive throughout the whole season and the seasons before. So for them it is not the first time they go into a week where they face two teams that dominated football in the last four or five years in the league and Champions League.

"They also saw because they follow football as well how difficult Southampton made it for Arsenal and for Man City to get a win. It not only has to do with age, it also has to do with experience and all of them have experience.

"Southampton have been unlucky but their style is excellent, they could have got a result in every game. Everyone is looking at Real Madrid and Man City, but this will be tough too on Sunday."