'Arne Slot must accept brutal Liverpool reality after what I saw unfold against Man City'

Liverpool dropped more points after a late collapse against Man City in the Premier League, with Arne Slot believing his side played well, but ultimately with a familiar outcome

Arne Slot reacts during the Premier League match between Liverpool and Manchester City.(Image: Carl Recine/Getty Images)

When the dust settles and Liverpool comes to terms with the bizarre ending to its defeat at the hands of Manchester City, including the strange red card that Dominik Szoboszlai collected, one thing will sting above all else.

This was the latest occasion that Liverpool has gone in front in a Premier League game at Anfield and gone on to lose. It is simultaneously just the latest example this season where it has experienced an extraordinary collapse.

In the race for the Champions League places, Liverpool is now trailing Manchester United by five points and Chelsea by four. Having gone ahead through Szoboszlai in such spectacular fashion, it was a catastrophic end that could prove very costly.

The game was level enough for the majority, decided by the final 15 minutes. When Manchester City needed something from nowhere, it stepped things up. When Liverpool needed to consolidate, it fell to pieces.

The Reds allowed Bernardo Silva to level and then panicked. Alisson Becker’s mistake for the penalty was careless to put it kindly, and that led to the second. Then, Szoboszlai’s shirt tug proved costlier than it needed to, even if it avoided conceding a third.

The whole thing? An unnecessary catalog of errors. Szoboszlai will only be banned for one game (it wasn’t a red card for violent conduct) but even so, he adds to the defensive headache, with Jeremie Frimpong, Conor Bradley and Joe Gomez all out.

Dominik Szoboszlai after he is sent off against Man City(Image: (Peter Byrne/PA Wire))

Manchester City and Chelsea qualified for the Champions League with nine defeats last season, and Newcastle with 12. Liverpool, though, with 13 fixtures remaining, is already on eight. Arne Slot's side is playing catch-up and the number of chances it has remaining are running low.

At the current rate, Liverpool will end this season on 12 defeats and 59 points — a massive drop-off from being Premier League champion and a points tally that would have seen it finish ninth in 2024/25.

If only the last 20 league games counted, Liverpool would be 12th in the standings — only five points above the relegation zone in that time period — and so while it has improved of late, it was in comparison to a dreadfully low bar.

"Second half we pressed really high and played good football," Slot said. "You cannot compare this game with three or four months ago.

"We have improved so much, but we need to improve the results. So many times this year we haven't got what I think we deserve and this is another time."

But for all that Slot insisted that Liverpool had played well — and it clearly has improved in recent weeks compared to the mess it was in during November — the brutal truth is that time is running out.

Losing to Manchester City is no disgrace, but we have reached the point in the season when Liverpool will need to start winning points when it isn't expected to in order to get back on track.

Starting at Sunderland on Wednesday would be as good a place as any, but right now, it is hard to make Liverpool the favorite.