Arne Slot acknowledges that Liverpool must achieve an impressive away record against their rivals to have a chance of winning the Premier League title, beginning with their match against Arsenal away this Sunday afternoon.
Last season, the Reds managed to secure just three points from a possible 15 in away games against the other top-six teams, suffering a 3-1 defeat to Arsenal during their last visit to the Emirates in February.
A victory this time would place Slot’s league leaders seven points clear of Mikel Arteta’s side in the title race, with second-placed Manchester City set to face struggling Southampton at home on Saturday afternoon.
While Slot believes it is overly simplistic to suggest that these matches will determine the championship’s outcome, he has challenged his players to improve upon last season.
Liverpool aim to maintain their perfect away record, having already traveled to Manchester United, Wolves, Crystal Palace, and Ipswich Town on the opening day of the campaign.
“If you look at Arsenal last season, I think it was seven points in between Arsenal and Liverpool,” Arne Slot said.
“The home game was a 1-1 draw, the away game Arsenal won.
“So if we could change the away result, which we can’t, to a win for Liverpool that would have been one point difference between the two teams.
“So that’s why if you play your competitor, those games are vital, just like all the others, but maybe these ones even a bit more.
“But it’s too simple to say ‘if you win those games the league table would have been different’.
“To win those games, those are the hardest games to win, so you need a certain quality to win those games and if you have that quality then you can compete for the league, in my opinion.
“So to win it, it is so simple ‘if we win this one and this one and this one, we would have won the league’ but there is a reason why you didn’t win it because probably the other team is stronger than you or it is so hard to beat the top five or six teams in an away game.
“And the teams who are able to do this like City and Arsenal last season were, they have a very good chance to win the league so if you want to win the league you need many, many points, then once in a while you have to win an away game, I think.
“It is such a long time ago but I can remember the first year when Pep Guardiola was at City that they hardly won any away game and the second year I remember it was the first one, Chelsea away, Kevin De Bruyne scored a solo goal and they won for the first time a big away game.
“So if you want to win this league, no matter who it is, you need to win a few of the five, six, seven very difficult away legs, we talk about Newcastle, we talk about Chelsea, about Aston Villa, about Tottenham, about City, about United and about Arsenal.”
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