Liverpool midfielder Dominik Szoboszlai has been clear about perspective ahead of the meeting with Arsenal, saying the Gunners must remember who they are up against and that Liverpool will approach the fixture as part of a longer restoration.<\/p>\n
Szoboszlai, who has played in a number of different roles for Arne Slot during 2025\u201326, spoke to Sky Sports. Both sides enter the match under immense pressure: Arsenal are aiming to assert themselves as the dominant force in English football, while Liverpool are trying to reassert authority after a miserable run of form between September and November that all but ended their chances of retaining the title.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a long way,\u201d Szoboszlai said. \u201cThe Premier League is not easy and you don\u2019t win it by January, I don\u2019t think so [playing against the champions]. They are playing against the champions. They know as well, they are one of the favourites and an unbelievable team with unbelievable players.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey can\u2019t forget about [Manchester] City and [Aston] Villa, they are doing really well. No, we don\u2019t play against the champions; they are playing against the champions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The league table makes Liverpool\u2019s immediate priorities plain. Slot\u2019s team have played one game fewer than those around them and sit fourth, nine points adrift of Aston Villa but just one ahead of fifth-placed Brentford. Sunderland, in 10th, are only four points away from Liverpool.<\/p>\n
Szoboszlai acknowledged the change in context for Liverpool and underlined a refusal to look too far ahead.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s crazy because if I go back to last year, by February we were 10 points clear and I was still saying we have not won it yet,\u201d he said. \u201cBut inside, I was like, this is the chance.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow probably, because we are so many points behind, we can\u2019t think long term. Dream, we can talk about it, but we have to think game by game and have to perform to show we can even be in the top four. We need things to go our way, why not?<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year when the manager came in, no one was thinking we had a chance to win it, but then we started very well and we kept on going.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you asked anybody, they wouldn\u2019t think we could win and the chances were small. Now, we started good and the luck was on our side, but it showed we are ready again. Sometimes comes a little hit and you don\u2019t react as you should, you saw it last season with City .<\/p>\n
\u201cNow you have to realise what you are aiming for. Game by game as we cannot look long term.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very tough, but different at other teams. It is what you want, actually. This is why you come here and play for the biggest clubs in the world, for the pressure. Whether you are winning or losing. We have to handle this.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not my job to say it [what Liverpool need to fix]. We have so many people in the club to find solutions and they will, I\u2019m pretty sure. Every player has a couple things that they are thinking, but they will keep it to themselves. We are going to grow as a group because we are Liverpool, we are the champions of England.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Szoboszlai insists Arsenal are facing the champions as Liverpool demand focus game by game. Stay on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,175,172],"tags":[299,1307],"class_list":["post-5848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-liverpool","category-epl","tag-arne-slot","tag-collapse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5848"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5848\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}