Liverpool manager was responding to the Arsenal coach’s argument that his side have not been “in the right place at the right time”
Clubs can win cup competitions with good luck but never the league title, Liverpool coach Arne Slot has said. The Premier League winner was responding to Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta’s comments that Arsenal have not been “in the right place at the right time” to win the league.
Earlier in May, Arteta said in a press conference that Liverpool have won the title with less points than his side did in the past two seasons. For full context, Arsenal finished with 89 points last season and 84 in the season before that. In those two seasons, Manchester City won the league with 91 and 89 points respectively.
The Arsenal manager presented this as a clear indication that things simply haven’t fallen in place for his side and Liverpool have been luckier this season. To win trophies, the Spaniard feels, circumstances have to align for a club.
“I totally agree with him on that, only not in a Premier League season,” said Slot. “So in a Champions League, FA Cup, World Cups, then it is about ‘in the right time in the right place’.
“In a season that’s so long, then normally the best team wins the league. You can reach a final with good luck, you can never win a league with only having a lot of luck.”
Slot can in fact point to some evidence that his have been more than just lucky this season. Liverpool beat Manchester City in both legs en route to the title, and they played out a 2-2 draw twice with Arteta’s side. In both examples, they have shown that they can either defeat their rivals or things end in a stalemate.
In contrast, Arteta’s side lost home and away against league rivals City in the 2022/23 season, including a 4-1 defeat in April where Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne put the Gunners to the sword and the title completely beyond their reach. In the 2023/24 season, City were at Arsenal’s mercy in a key title decider in March, with several of their first-team players out due to injury. But Arteta’s side didn’t go for the kill and instead played too conservatively to end the game in a 0-0 draw.
Slot hammered this point home. “Maybe we were a bit lucky that City had – for the first time in five years – a difficult period,” he said. “But we were also part of that difficult period, because we beat them at home [when] they had already lost a few… and we didn’t have one, and that’s what you need when you want to win a league like this.
“You cannot have a longer period of games where you drop points.”
