Slot targets Arsenal scalp after flying start for Liverpool

Arne Slot says his Liverpool team are “matching his expectations” after their flying start to the season as he prepares for a tough test against Arsenal.

The Reds are top of the Premier League with seven wins in their first eight matches and have also won all three of their Champions League games so far.

On Sunday Slot takes his side to face Arsenal with the chance to move seven points clear of the Gunners.

He told reporters on Friday that he was expecting a tough test at the Emirates against Mikel Arteta’s men, who are missing key players.

“If you look at the last two seasons, Arsenal were far ahead of us, but also above Chelsea (whom Liverpool beat 2-1 last week),” he said.

“So you would assume that playing Arsenal would be even more difficult, but let’s see at the end of the season where Chelsea and Arsenal both are.

“Normally you would expect, especially because it’s also an away game, that this one is even more difficult than Chelsea at home, and we all saw how difficult Chelsea at home was.”

Last season Liverpool took just three points from their four games against champions Manchester City and Arsenal, who finished second.

“We all know that taking points from your competitors, and nobody knows in this early stage who is going to be your biggest competitor, but I think we all know that Arsenal will be one of them,” said Slot.

The Dutchman, who is in his first season at Anfield after taking over from Jurgen Klopp, was asked whether he was meeting the targets he had set himself.

“It wasn’t like I was on my holiday thinking, ‘OK, after 10 games how many points do I want to have?’,” he said.

“No, the only thing I was thinking of was how am I going to try to bring the best out of this team that has been done for so long by Jurgen, and how can we continue that, and how am I going to do the individual meetings with the players, the team meetings with the players, and you don’t think about points.”

He added: “I didn’t have expectations coming in when it comes to the amount of points we needed to have after one, two, three or 10 games.

“But there were expectations from me the way I wanted to see the team playing, and I think that is matching my expectations at the moment.”

Injured forward Diogo Jota will miss the trip to London while goalkeeper Alisson Becker remains out of action.