Arne Slot revealed that it was business as usual by Tuesday after allowing himself Sunday and Monday to celebrate Liverpool‘s Premier League title success.
The Reds clinched top-flight glory courtesy of a 5-1 victory over Tottenham last Sunday, sparking pandemonium on Merseyside — but Slot’s celebrations sounded relatively low key as he spent time with his family on Monday before his focus switched back to the pitch.
“Monday was my wife’s birthday, so she was here together with the children and some friends, so we had lunch together,” Slot said. “Tuesday they left, so Tuesday was, I would almost say, going back to normal. I don’t know what it was, Tuesday actually. Oh, yeah, I picked up my car, I left my car at Anfield. And Wednesday we trained.
“So it’s not like the whole world has changed by winning this league title. Sometimes you think before you win, like, oh, probably everything is going to change, but when I woke up Monday morning, I still felt the same person. Although I felt really happy, but it doesn’t change you in your life all of a sudden completely.”
Liverpool returns to action against Chelsea on Sunday, before games against Arsenal, Brighton and Crystal Palace to round off the season.
“[I was] thinking about, OK, how are we going to do the upcoming weeks?” Slot said as he revealed what was on his agenda earlier this week. “Because Wednesday was the first time we were back together again, so players also like to know what their schedule would look like in the upcoming month.
“So Tuesday was the first time when I started calling staff members to see how we were going to go through the upcoming weeks, and maybe Wednesday, when we were together with the staff, was the first time you start to think about the Chelsea game.”
Learn more
Slot revealed that he will not be making wholesale changes to his team against Chelsea just because the title has been wrapped up. Federico Chiesa is one appearance off being guaranteed a Premier League winner’s medal: he has played four times and five appearances are required to secure a medal, although Liverpool could still choose to hand him one anyway.
Slot added: “We could maybe see a player in a certain position, what he does in that position combined with someone else. But like I said it is not going to be a big change, there’s not going to be seven or eight new starters. It’s going to most of it be the same and to see how a few players do in a difficult game like Chelsea away and where they are in their development.”
But Slot’s focus is also starting to turn to next season with work already underway on bringing new players in with sporting director Richard Hughes.
He added: “In the background, of course I did this already a little bit, because it’s not like after we won the league, that’s the first time Richard [Hughes] called me and said, ‘OK, these are the players we are interested in!’
“But I think there’s a bit more time for that now than there would have been if we still needed three points or a win or whatever. So there’s a bit more time now to have these conversations.”
