Liverpool need a reset but worse may be yet to come

Arne Slot used to be swathed in the right sort of statistics. He was the head coach who only lost one of his first 30 Premier League games, who won far more of his first 50 games in charge than any previous Liverpool manager.

- RICHARD JOLLY

When the final whistle blew at Brentford on Saturday, Liverpool had five consecutive defeats in England. For the first time since 1970, they have lost five straight league games in London. And, as Liverpool prepare for a third meeting of a campaign that seems to be going off the rails with one of their conquerors, in one respect their capital record is still worse than that.

Include the Carabao Cup final and the Community Shield, factor in a penalty shootout, and they have had seven straight setbacks in London. There is a pertinence to each: without Alexander Isak’s Wembley goal in March, would Liverpool have been so desperate to sign him? The Community Shield, meanwhile, was both evidence that Marc Guehi would not go on strike to force a move to Merseyside and that, actually, Liverpool required his services more.

Guehi will instead arrive at Anfield with Crystal Palace tomorrow in the Carabao Cup. Palace were the first – in anything resembling an official fixture – to highlight the frailties of the revamped Liverpool, coming from 2-0 down to draw within 90 minutes in August’s Community Shield. It was easy to attribute it to teething troubles, and not unfair either. Rather, it was a sign of things to come.