It wasn't a good week for Liverpool. The heartbreak of going out of the Champions League on penalties might have been forgotten by winning a first trophy under Arne Slot, but Newcastle United had other ideas.
Fortunately for the Reds, Slot won't have too long to wait until his can lift a trophy above his head. Liverpool is going to win the Premier League with Arsenal — who beat Chelsea over the weekend — 12 points behind with nine games left to play.
Next up for Liverpool is the Merseyside derby at the start of April because of the international break and then an FA Cup weekend. It then travels to Fulham the following weekend.
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Liverpool hosts West Ham United and Spurs before April finishes, with an away game at Leicester City in between. By that point, the Premier League title could be won. In May, Liverpool goes to Chelsea and Brighton, and hosts Arsenal and Crystal Palace.
"Like I said from the start, it took us seven, eight [or] nine months to lose twice in a row and that happens against two teams; one of them is fighting for Champions League, Newcastle is a very good team [and] we knew this already at St. James’ Park, and the other one is Paris Saint-Germain," Slot said during his post-match press conference at Wembley.
"Probably if you can beat us in that style of play you are probably the best in Europe at the moment. They still have to show if they still can do this in the upcoming two or three months.
"But I want to make clear one more time that the week started off really well by us beating Southampton. That’s why we extended our lead to 12 points [in the Premier League] with nine games to go.
"You know if you go far in tournaments that the opposition you face gets stronger and stronger. Even Liverpool can lose football games, that’s what can happen."
Slot was also asked if the manner of the defeat worried him, given how out-fought Liverpool was. But he refuted that — something his team will have to prove when they return after the international break.
"We were outplayed in their style, yeah, that’s true," Slot said. "That is what you can call outplayed. Yeah, they won more duels than us. Is that what you mean? Is that outworking? Or is that one of their biggest qualities to play so much [with] aerial duels and to win these physique duels?
"Outplayed for me is if you don’t touch the ball and they play through you every single time we tried to press them, every time you’re too late. That is for me outplayed. But I agree with you if you say that they deserved to win because the game went in the way they wanted it to go.
"Yes, they deserved to win, but it wasn’t like we were only running after them. We had to defend a lot of long balls [and] second balls and that’s their strength."
Liverpool.com says: While the Reds will have to bounce back from a bruising week, they should have more than enough to sail over the line in the Premier League. The buffer is large enough that Liverpool will win the title — and that will be a massive achievement.
