Arne Slot says fourth place is a fair reflection of Liverpool’s difficult first half of their Premier League title defence
01:00, 03 Jan 2026Updated 01:04, 03 Jan 2026
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot admits his side haven’t been good enough to keep pace with Arsenal and Manchester City(Image: Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
Arne Slot believes fourth place is a fair reflection of Liverpool’s first half of their Premier League season – admitting he isn’t thinking of reeling in leaders Arsenal or second-placed Manchester City right now.
The defending champions extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to eight games with a goalless draw with Leeds United on New Year’s Day but it was viewed as a missed opportunity to go five points clear of Chelsea in fifth and to within four points of Aston Villa in third.
Liverpool, while having not tasted defeat since November, have struggled to piece together complete performances during this current sequence and they were unable to exert too much pressure on Leeds at Anfield on the night as they played out their first 0-0 draw since December 2023.
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“Okay, that is not a nice thing to hear,” Slot said, when informed of that statistic. “But I think it is clear and obvious that we hardly concede chances any more.
“At this moment in time, against the opponents we had in the last seven or eight games, but for me it is also clear and obvious that we find it quite hard to generate enough chances for all the ball possession we have and that is not new for us this season.
“What the players try to do is they keep on trying, they bring the ball towards the wingers, they make inside runs, they play and move, they do all the things.
“But sometimes you need a kind of magic to unlock a game or a set-piece and if that then happens then all of a sudden everything looks much nicer but that is not our season until now.
“Yes [fourth is fair] although the margins are small. So that could have influenced us having three, four, five, six more points, maybe.
“But, yeah, like today (Thursday) and like so many other games, if we would have done a bit better in set-pieces and we would have had five, six, seven points more as well so that could have changed it a little, but from open play, from where we are, when I look at Arsenal, I look at City and I look at us, it’s fair that we are not above them.
“That we are so many points behind them, there are reasons for that, which I just explained, but it wouldn’t be fair if we were above them, for the way we have played.”
Slot added: “Realistically I think there are two teams, with Villa being really really close to them because Arsenal, against Villa, they created a bit of a gap to Villa, but realistically those two teams are quite far away from us and we should not look at those two at this moment in time.
“We have had our struggles throughout, we started really well in terms of results, games were really close, then we had a phase of the season where games were still really close but we were constantly unlucky, now we have been seven or eight games in a row unbeaten but if you say this you feel like, ‘they are flying through the league’, but that is not what we are doing.
“Every single game we play it’s hard work, it’s two teams quite close to each other, we are mainly the team that is probably better than the other team but not enough.
“We are constantly within this 20% difference and if you are inside this 20% difference then going to the floor or not means a lot for the results.
“And I will keep pushing and the players will keep pushing to get to a situation where we are more than that 20% and we can make the difference bigger and hopefully we can find a moment where we can fly through the season.
“But for the first 19 games it has been a constant battle, close to each other, sometimes a bit lucky, sometimes a bit unlucky season.”