NewsArne Slot previews Man City v Liverpool: 'A very interesting game to look forward to'

The Reds visit Etihad Stadium for a 4.30pm GMT kick-off that will pit the reigning Premier League champions against the team they deposed last season.

No other club has won the title since the 2016-17 campaign and Liverpool and City go into this weekend placed third and second respectively in the table, with Arsenal currently leading the way.

Ahead of the latest instalment of a rivalry that has generated several classic clashes in recent years, Slot held a press conference at the AXA Training Centre.

Read the head coach’s match preview below.

On how much of a boost it would be for Liverpool to win away at City...

City is of course a game on itself, you could say. Playing there away from home is probably one of the most difficult challenges you have throughout the season, although I constantly keep saying how difficult it is to play Brentford away or [Crystal] Palace away. Every away game is difficult – every home game as well, but an away game even more and that is what I think City have felt this season because I think they have lost two away games. I think we have lost three away games. The only exception to that is Arsenal maybe lost one away game against us but they have been the exception this season. The rest have probably done similar things.

So, a very interesting game to look forward to because when I wasn’t working here and when I was in Holland I did know when City v Liverpool was or when Liverpool v City was, and I could tell you I was 100 per cent sure in front of my television when this game was there. Similar to the Clasico, by the way, but these are the few games everyone is looking forward to and if you are not part of it, you are looking forward to it as well.

On whether he believes the match will be ‘worth watching again’…

I think it’s always worth watching because so many great individuals are playing that game and these teams, nine out of 10 times, give you what you expect. For me with Pep [Guardiola] that’s 10 out of 10… what I liked about Pep Guardiola’s teams is that 10 out of 10 times you get what you are hoping for: a great game of football with no time-wasting and all kind of things that I start to dislike more and more and more about football. These are not the things you can see if you are watching a Man City game.

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On the importance of the game in terms of the title race…

I only focus on ourselves and our main focus is on consistency at the moment. We’ve lost a few games, much more than we usually do, and now we’ve won two so our focus is on getting consistent and improving, improving, getting players fit and then we will see where that will lead to. But at this moment of time it’s [the league table] definitely not the only focus we have.

On Liverpool’s performance in beating Real Madrid in midweek, their second win in a row after defeating Aston Villa…

For me, but again I say mainly the same, we’ve reached that level of performance in other games as well, when the playing style of the opponent was compared to that. But we always knew that we were able to do so – I’ve showed them many times, when playing styles were similar, that we could do the same as we did against Madrid, so it wasn’t a surprise to me how both games went. It was helpful for us that the other team did what we expected them to do because in eight out of the 10 games I think we’ve played this season we faced a different playing style than all the games these teams played before. But Villa and Madrid did what we could expect and I think that’s always helpful.

Then there is still a lot of work to be done by the players to get a performance like that, but it is helpful. Where I think we can expect from City is the playing style we always see, but the difficult thing in that is that they are very good at it and have very good players so that makes that challenge big again. But as I said every Premier League game and every Champions League game is a challenge.