Monday, December 23, 2024

Liverpool have big incentive against Arsenal

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[PA Media]

It has been quite the start for Arne Slot as Liverpool manager, with 11 wins from his first 12 games.

The past week has also seen his side clear two hurdles in a testing run of seven games in 21 days, beating Chelsea at home in the Premier League and RB Leipzig in Germany in the Champions League.

The Reds face another tough test in that run with the trip to Arsenal on Sunday and a big incentive for Slot’s side is that they will move seven points clear of the Gunners if they win.

The absences of Martin Odegaard and William Saliba for Arsenal, with Bukayo Saka also a doubt, might help Liverpool’s cause and we will hear what Slot’s thoughts are on a huge game when he chats to the media at 10:30 BST.

The Dutchman took Mohamed Salah off after 63 minutes at Leipzig as he had one eye on the game on Sunday and he is trying to utilise his squad to keep them as fresh and in form as possible.

However, he does have his own injury issues. Goalkeeper Alisson Becker and attacking midfielder Harvey Elliott are out, while we will see if Slot has anything to say about the fitness of forward Diogo Jota, winger Federico Chiesa and right-back Conor Bradley, who missed the trip to Germany.

Captain Virgil van Dijk has said he is in talks about extending his contract with the club, so we will also find out if Slot has anything to say on that.

Come back to this page later for all the key lines from Slot’s news conference

Follow all of Friday’s Premier League news conferences and the rest of the day’s football news

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