New Liverpool head coach Arne Slot sent a clear warning to Manchester City and Arsenal ahead of the 2024/25 season in touching on his role as the new Reds boss with the earnest intention of challenging both clubs for top Premier League honors in his debut season.
The Dutchman officially starts life as the Reds’ new head coach on July 1, replacing Jurgen Klopp who had an extremely successful nine-year tenure at Anfield.
The Merseyside club were firmly entrenched in the title race until their form waned in April and May, eventually finishing third and nine points behind champions City, while the Gunners took the title race all the way to the wire but also narrowly missed out, with the Sky Blues winning their fourth consecutive Premier League title.
“If we do what we have to do, we’re going to be closer and at the end we’ll win it,” Mikel Arteta had said defiantly after the final game.
“When? I don’t know. But if we keep knocking and being that close, in the end it will happen.”
Arsenal can be pretty certain they will not be the only ones earnestly desiring to challenge Man City once again – hoping to win their first Premier League title since 2004 – as they would have to crank things up a big notch as Slot believes his Liverpool side have what it takes to go all the way as serious contenders.
“[A] real good team, real good players, managed to be on top for a very long time, but I think in the end we would all love to see Liverpool a bit higher than third place and this is the challenge we are facing now – to build on from what we have,” Slot told the official Liverpool website.
“I have all the confidence in this because of the players, that we can add a few things where we hopefully can get a bit more points than 82, which is necessary with the likes of Arsenal and City, to end up hopefully a bit higher than we did this season.”
He added: “There is a change but the change hopefully isn’t that big, because we still have the same players, we still have the same fans – and if the both of them are going to do the same job, that will make my life a lot more easy! I’m expecting them to show up again in the upcoming season, and the same for the players. I will do everything within my interest and power to lead the team in the best possible way.”
The Dutchman will surely be bringing with him fresh ideas and a winning mentality, having guided Feyenoord to their first league title in six years in 2023.
Arteta, however, believes the Gunners are on the right path themselves. When questioned if winning the title requires 100 points, the Spaniard said: “Yeah. But I was there [at Man City] when we did 100 points so I know what it takes. I know what happened and this is the level.
“No one has to explain what the level is because I was there four years every day and I know what we have to do if we are going to reach there. Not only for one season, but for the rest, but we are on the right path, the right journey and to see the evolution so quickly happening, I haven’t seen it before. So, we’re on the right trajectory and now we need really to pull the teeth and bite into it because we really want more.”