Liverpool moved 13 points clear of Arsenal in the Premier League title race midweek as the Reds beat Newcastle United and the Gunners dropped more points by drawing 0-0 with Nottingham Forest.
With the gap at the top now at such a level that the Anfield crowd felt comfortable singing loudly about winning the league, Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker have had their say on the difference that Arne Slot has made. Since taking over from Jurgen Klopp, the Liverpool head coach has only lost one game of real importance.
"You’ve got to give great credit to the physios, doctors, sport science, whatever they’ve done at Liverpool this year," Shearer said on " target="_blank" class="link"> The Rest Is Football podcast.
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"They’ve played every competition — I know the FA Cup, they got knocked out a couple of weeks ago to Plymouth — but up until then they’ve played every single week, Champions League, and have not really had big injuries, have they? Not to their big players."
"I think that’s probably why the margin at the top of the table is so big," Lineker agreed. "Because all those around — obviously Manchester City have had their injuries and obviously dipping form as well clearly.
"Arsenal now lost their front three or four and they’ve been debilitated, and so there’s not really been a likely challenger. And that’s why they’ve run away with it — but, I mean, they’ve been incredibly impressive. Brilliant."
Liverpool has been without the likes of goalkeeper Alisson Becker and center forward Diogo Jota for large chunks of the campaign but neither loss has proven to be too harmful. The Reds have coped much better with key men being absent than Arsenal, though Mikel Arteta's team has been hit harder by a build-up of players being out, especially in attack.
With Alisson out, Caoimhin Kelleher stepped in seamlessly. Jota's absence saw Luis Diaz step up and impress as a number nine and Cody Gakpo excel even more off the left flank. At the moment, Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez are both missing with the latter potentially set to sit out the majority of the rest of the season.
Liverpool.com says: The point that is often missed when people talk about the injuries that Arsenal has had this season is that it is not just down to bad luck. Bukayo Saka played almost every minute for two seasons on the bounce, so an injury was likely to come at some point. Like Liverpool has found before, one injury can quickly lead to another when one part of the team is overloaded.
