Liverpool handed opportunity to send loudest Premier League title message yet to Arsenal

Liverpool handed opportunity to send loudest Premier League title message yet to Arsenal

Arne Slot and Virgil van Dijk preview Sunday's trip to the Etihad as Liverpool aim for their win away at Manchester City since 2015 in the Premier League

Arne Slot and Pep Guardiola. (Image: Naomi Baker/Getty Images )

For a team with the best away record in the Premier League, it could be argued that Liverpool remain without a 'statement victory' across their 14 fixtures so far.

More than half of their 61 points have been earned outside of Anfield and while it may be suggested, without irony, that September's 3-0 shellacking of Manchester United was the sort of display that belongs in that bracket, the season from hell for a United side who are currently 15th might exclude them from such a boast.

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Three times already Arne Slot's league leaders have drawn 2-2 away from home in 2025, having followed up January's top-of-the-table clash with Nottingham Forest with the Merseyside derby against Everton and Aston Villa over the last week 10 days.

Go back to December and the Reds were also held to a thrilling 3-3 draw at Newcastle, which showcased their mental reserves to dig deep in one of the toughest venues in the country for a visiting team, before seeing what would have been a massive victory snatched away late on.

For each of those four draws, in fact, Slot might be minded to point to a very specific point in each game as to why two points slipped through his grasp. For Newcastle, it was Caoimhin Kelleher's stoppage-time mistake that allowed Fabian Schar to equalise, while Mohamed Salah's goal-bound strike was cleared off the line at Forest late on.

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In the final derby at Goodison Park, James Tarkowski's 98th-minute leveller earned a share of the spoils and it was Darwin Nunez's remarkable miss that failed to make it 3-2 to the Reds on the night at Villa Park earlier this week.

Nine of those 14 away games have ended with a Liverpool win but the wait for a result that screeches 'Premier League champions-elect' has not been forthcoming so far it might be fair to say.

As Jamie Carragher argued in his Telegraph column this week: "Beat Manchester City at the Etihad and win the title." The Reds legend caveated that statement by admitting it is easier said than done but it feels to many as though that is what is on the line this weekend, even if Slot himself won't agree.

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"There's always something to learn from the history or from recent years," Slot says on the eve of his first visit to the Etihad as Reds boss. "But it's a different competitor this time, it's a different team we have. So this team, only a few of them were involved in the title race with City.

"I think for the most part it's a team that hasn't experienced that yet. So there might be one or two things to learn, but in general I think it's a new season with new players, you can't compare... I don't know which team they then faced at the end of the season, it's difficult to take something from it, but players that have experienced it might have learned something from it."

This fixture has represented the high watermark for English football over much of the last decade, when Jurgen Klopp's Reds went head-to-head with Pep Guardiola's City and points tallies that ranged between 92 and 100 were amassed. They have been games that have been largely dominated by the hosts.

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Only one in the last 18, in fact, has been won by the away side, which came when City triumphed 4-1 at Anfield in front of no fans three years ago. And while Pep Guardiola has been dominant since his arrival on these shores, no other team has beaten him more than Liverpool's tally of nine. To make that into double figures, however, will mean the Reds end what is nearly a 10-year wait for victory at the Etihad.

"I think they have the quality to hurt you," says captain Virgil van Dijk. "I expect a very, very difficult game. We've always been playing against each other very intensely and Sunday will be just like that. Now, it's time to recover and be ready for a big one.

"I don't think it's going to be any different. It's going to be a tough one. Hopefully we can get the three points there. It will be very difficult. Any game in the Premier League is difficult so we have to keep going."

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City's shocking malaise means they have lost 13 of their 40 games under Guardiola this term, which is already the most in any of the Catalan's nine years in Manchester and, somewhat remarkably, goalkeeper Ederson has the same number of assists as Jack Grealish and Phil Foden combined this term with three.

Such has been the drop-off that they enter the weekend 16 points behind the leaders, out of the Champions League and attempting to assimilate four new players whose total cost amounted to around £200m. It's quite the trick up the sleeve to have when the going gets tough.

"Whatever they go through, that's their thing," Van Dijk says. "I just focus on Liverpool because we have to keep going and keep working. Clean sheets obviously come from hard work. The only time when you can improve is if you just keep going and keep trying again as a team. Clean sheets are part of it and everyone has a responsibility to that. That's what we try to do and that's what we have to get back to."

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Slot adds: "Are they not at their best? If you take two months ago, I think it's fair to say that they weren't at their best. At the moment, you could argue that with just beating Newcastle 4-0, players coming back, adding four new players.

"So their players will be at their best again, will be the best possible preparation they could do. Because it's a special.. Even for City players that have experienced so many great things, I think it's still a special game to play. Because of the rivalry there was over the last six, seven years. Rivalry is maybe not the right word, but the competition there was between the two teams.

"Now, if you go out of the Champions League against Real Madrid, that's not so weird. So they were very unlucky with this new format that it went like this. Or they were lucky with the new format that they still had a chance, because I don't think they were in the first 16, were they? So talking about this format, but we will come back to that later.

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"Even when they were at their best, there is always, every team has some things to exploit. But the better teams in the league have lesser things to exploit than the worst teams in the league. So, yeah, I think we have to be at our best to keep this unbeaten run going of 22 games.

"We feel this at the moment with Liverpool as well, but I don't think it's that much of a difference when City comes there or when Arsenal comes there. I think these are always big occasions for the players, for the fans.

"I think every season ticket holder is in the stadium if City comes there, if Arsenal comes there, if Liverpool comes there. And if some other teams come there, they're like, maybe I will go to the family this time. But that's not what it is if these three teams come up. If I look around, I cannot find a seat that is not taken."

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Slot, of course, is right. There won't be a spare seat in the house at the Etihad this weekend as the Reds go search of that elusive win in east Manchester. If it has been a season without a 'statement victory' outside of Anfield, they could be set to make the biggest one of all on Sunday afternoon.

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