Arne Slot has led Liverpool to the Premier League title in his first season at Anfield, with a bitter-sounding Mikel Arteta having claimed an element of luck drove the Reds’ success
Arne Slot has insisted Mikle Arteta was wrong to claim Liverpool’s title win this season is down to luck. The Reds stormed to their second title in five years, wrapping things up with four games still to play.
They will finish at least nine points ahead of runners-up Arsenal and could end up as many as 15 points ahead of the Gunners. It is a remarkable achievement, especially given it is Slot’s first season as manager.
He has become just the fifth manager to win the Premier League title in his first campaign in the division. That is despite the Reds failing to bring in a major signing during last summer’s transfer window.
For Arsenal meanwhile, it is their third successive season finishing as runners-up. Arteta attempted to defend his squad earlier this month by pointing to the fact that when they won the title, Liverpool had amassed less points than Arsenal did in both of their previous seasons finishing second.
“We’re going to try to do this season. Winning trophies as well is about being in the right moment, in the right place. Liverpool have won the title with less points than we have in the last two seasons,” he said ahead of the Gunners’ Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain.
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“With the points of the last two seasons, we would have two Premier League titles. So, you have to be in the right moment, in the right place. To win the final of the Champions League, you have to do something exceptional throughout the tournament.”
Slot though has insisted Arteta is wrong and that Liverpool have clearly been the best team in the Premier League. The Dutchman hailed his side for fighting through adversity to run away with the title.
“All these excuses you could give to Liverpool… with us maybe not spending… or not bringing new players in, or taking over from someone. All these things are excuses for teams that don’t win the league.”
“It’s nice that if you have all these excuses, that you don’t have to use them, but you still just won it. I did it now in two different leagues and in two different ways. Everybody has the right to have his own opinion.
“What he meant was: ‘Sometimes you have to be in the right place at the right time.’ I totally agree with him on that. Only not in a Premier League season. 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, and you can never win a league with only having a lot of luck. Maybe we were a bit lucky that City had – for the first time in five years – a difficult period.
“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.”
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