‘It’s extraordinary what Liverpool are doing’ – can anyone stop them?

A manager looks to gain the edge over his rivals in a Premier League title battle almost as much as what happens on the field.

When the Arsenal boss was questioned about predicting a difficult start for Liverpool, Mikel Arteta may have been playing that role during his pre-game press conference on Friday.

“They normally do”, he said. “So we have to be there. That’s for sure”.

But based on Saturday’s display, Liverpool are showing no signs of suffering a blip anytime soon as they swept aside Ipswich 4-1 to maintain their six-point advantage over the Gunners, who edged past Wolves.

Cody Gakpo, who is in good form, and Mohamed Salah and Dominik Szoboszlai both had goals for the Reds.

With a game in hand over second-placed Arsenal, it extends their unbeaten run in the Premier League to 18 games and keeps them firmly in the lead.

Former Chelsea winger Pat Nevin remarked on BBC Radio 5 live, “It’s extraordinary what Liverpool are doing.”

“They do make it look easy”.

Many people did not anticipate Liverpool’s title challenge at the start of the season, but Jurgen Klopp, who took Jurgen Klopp over, did so much more quickly than expected.

Salah has been the club’s star since the beginning of the season, and his most recent goal brings his total to 19 for the season, which is the highest total by any Premier League player at this time.

The improvements other members of the Liverpool team have made throughout the campaign are what are also worrying Liverpool’s rivals.

With his five goals in his previous six Premier League games, Gakpo’s double on Saturday puts some pressure on talisman Salah.

He had four shots against Ipswich, more than any other player, and could have scored more goals on another day.

They also appear to be providing even more attacking threat, and last weekend at Brentford they received 37 shots, the most by an away team in Premier League history. Since records began, this was the most so far.

“That is the development the team is in”, Slot said. “Our players are now playing positions that are even more promising than they were last year.

” At the beginning of the season he]Szoboszlai] would have played that ball]for his goal] to Mohamed Salah but this time he decided to go for goal himself.

With Saturday’s win marking their first league win at Anfield this season, Liverpool have scored four or more goals than they have this season. Previously, Klopp had been seen as free-scoring, but now under Slot they are more pragmatic.

The Reds have won the Premier League this season and have collected more points (26) than any other team, which is always essential to a title push.

A team at the top could become irritated when they try to defeat an opponent with a low block because they are competing for their lives.

However, that did not appear to be the case when Liverpool opened Ipswich for Szoboszlai’s opener.

To prevent Ipswich’s late pressure from being anything more than a consolation goal, they calmly added three more goals.

Former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha said, “If you are going to be passive against a team like Liverpool, you are going to be punished.”

A six-point advantage may disappear after a few bad results, while Liverpool are in control. It is undoubtedly not a title-winning advantage, and certainly not at this season’s beginning.

A nine-point advantage becomes more difficult to overthrow, both physically and psychologically, for Liverpool to win their game in hand.

History shows it can be done, even at this stage of a season.

In 1996, Manchester United trailed Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle by 12 points after 23 matches, but Sir Alex Ferguson’s side ended up lifting the title after a final-day win against Middlesbrough.

However, Slot and his players aren’t letting the title battle get in the way of things, instead focusing on the outcome.

“We are mainly focused on ourselves”, he added.

“We had to win this game because Liverpool expects us to win.”