Arne Slot responds to Arsenal fans who say Liverpool have been ‘lucky’ with injuries | Football

Arne Slot has responded to claims that his Liverpool side have been ‘lucky’ with injuries this season during the Premier League title race.

The Reds have been locked in a tussle with Arsenal for the majority of the season – but some feel the battle is more or less over – given Slot’s league leaders currently have a 13-point lead over the second-placed Gunners.

Arsenal have a game in hand over Liverpool but even if they were to win that, they’d still be 10 points behind the Reds with just 10 fixtures to go.

There have been suggestions from some fans and pundits – particularly supporters of the Gunners and former Arsenal players – that Liverpool have been ‘lucky’ to avoid any significant injuries to their key players.

Arsenal have been in a recent attacking injury crisis, with superstar winger Bukayo Saka missing a large chunk of games and the north Londoners even being forced to deploy midfielder Mikel Merino as a makeshift striker.

‘You need a lot of luck [to win the title] and we haven’t had that this season at all,’ former Arsenal goalkeeper and football pundit David Seaman said last week. ‘Especially with the injuries we’ve had to our key players.

‘If you take [Mohamed] Salah out of the Liverpool team for a long time, you are going to struggle. We’re the same with Bukayo [Saka]. [Gabriel] Martinelli is also out, [Gabriel] Jesus is out, [Kai] Havertz as well, just after transfer deadline day, which you can’t see [coming].’

One Arsenal fan recently phoned into talkSPORT and added: ‘[Liverpool] have rode their luck with injuries. They’ve got a squad, with the injuries they’ve had, to cover that. They haven’t had any key injuries.’

Liverpool head coach has now issued a response to claims Liverpool have been ‘lucky’ with injuries as the Dutchman told a press conference on Friday: ‘If you think injuries are only a part of luck or bad luck then we’ve been lucky.

‘But we try to believe in the fact that we try to prevent them from a certain way of working. That we don’t have many injuries, I don’t see that as luck.

‘I see it as, first of all, top professionals – our players do everything to try to stay fit – and, second of all, great facilities and a great staff. You need to show this over a longer period of time to consider it luck or bad luck.

‘If we can continue doing this for years without many big injuries then it’s probably also quality, although you cannot go through a season in the Premier League, Champions League and all these cup competitions we play in this country without any injuries.

‘Diogo Jota was out for three or four months without a start, Alisson Becker has been out for weeks, maybe even months, Trent [Alexander-Arnold] has been out, Conor Bradley.

‘Joe Gomez is out now for three months. We also have our injuries but you cannot go through a season without an injury. It’s more the amount of injuries you try to hopefully prevent. It could be luck but I hope we do things in the right way.’

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