Arne Slot was discussing how difficult the Premier League is. He often does, the man whose results have suggested he has found it easy. Slot forever underlines that it isn’t, not even when Liverpool only need two victories to take the title and their next two opponents are Leicester and Tottenham. “We've shown in the last 32 games that there have only been two or three wins that were quite comfortable, but the rest of them were very, very, very hard work,” he said after Liverpool made hard work of beating West Ham.
It offers an indication into the type of champions they will be: deserving, after just two defeats in 32 games, as frontrunners who have rarely looked in danger of being caught. And yet damned with faint praise: Arsenal have dropped too many points to chase them and, mixed as Liverpool’s performances have been in recent weeks, the question will remain unanswered if they would have cracked under pressure. No one has applied enough to tell.
But, difficult as it can be to win games, Liverpool have done it on 23 occasions. No one has mustered more than 17 victories. It has led to incorrect suggestions the division is weak: rather it is an indication of competitiveness, together with slipping standards at Manchester City, the team who used to make winning look routine and whose triumphs were often emphatic.
Slot is a realist. So are his employers. They did not set him an unrealistic target, but one that was far from a formality. Taking the title will be spectacular overachievement but Slot was charged with something that became mathematically certain on Saturday. “They told me [to] look at the players, give your opinion so we can go into this project in the second and third year but do qualify for the Champions League,” he said.
It is no simple task. Slot noted the talent in the West Ham ranks, with a club who have spent over £100m in each of the last two summers now in the bottom four. He cited the growing competition for a top-four or top-five finish. A big four became a big six with City and Tottenham, then a big eight with Newcastle and Aston Villa. Now Nottingham Forest have gatecrashed their way up to third. “We all know that even the team that is in 16th [or 17th] has very good players but the top eight have incredible players,” he said. And eight or nine into five won't go.
There is a financial significance to Champions League football. Liverpool posted a loss of £57m last year, when they were in the Europa League. Hence the objective Slot was set. “I think it's the main aim of the club because they experienced how much of an impact it is if you're not part of the Champions League,” he said. The economist managers, whether Jurgen Klopp or Arsene Wenger, knew as much. Wenger’s infamous assertion that fourth place was like a ...
