Arne Slot already clear of Jurgen Klopp and Rafael Benitez as Liverpool boss

Arne Slot has now led Liverpool into three competitions, winning his first match with the Reds in all of them. By beating West Ham 5-1 in the Carabao Cup at Anfield on Wednesday evening, the Dutchman recorded his sixth win in just seven matches.

The naysayers will point to how poor Liverpool’s performance was in the exception, the turgid 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest . But did anyone realistically expect Slot to start his tenure with six victories in his first seven fixtures?

It is a mark few managers in the club’s history will have met. Liverpool’s new head coach has made the best start in the job since Bob Paisley put six wins and a draw on the board in 1974. Eleven men, including Jürgen Klopp and Rafael Benitez , have tried but failed to match that record in between.

READ MORE: Arne Slot makes his point to reporters extremely clear after Liverpool beat up West Ham

READ MORE: Arne Slot is just five games away from meeting Trent Alexander-Arnold contract demand

With this the golden anniversary of Paisley’s first campaign in charge, Slot will hope for a better debut season than his illustrious predecessor. Both men faced the challenge of replacing an era-defining manager, but Paisley’s vintage only collected the Charity (now Community) Shield in 1974/75.

The former Feyenoord boss stands a better chance of first season success than many of the men who came before him at Liverpool , simply by virtue of the quality of squad which he inherited. It is telling that Slot is the first head coach of the Reds to make his European debut in the Champions League proper. His four immediate predecessors all got underway in the Europa League, while Benitez kicked off with a qualifier for the continent’s top club competition.

Even so, the quality with which Slot has started his new job is worthy of acknowledgement. It took Klopp 10 matches to put six victories on the board, which was a strong start compared to some other recent Liverpool managers at that time.

Brendan Rodgers’ sixth triumph occurred in his 12 ^th match, with Europa League qualifiers accounting for four of the fixtures. He also failed to win any of his first five in the Premier League, killing any title hopes, however unrealistic, before the season had got going.

And at least Slot didn’t lose his first domestic cup game, as Roy Hodgson did. Even if the Reds had lost this week, a defeat to West Ham would not be anywhere near as embarrassing as the League Cup exit handed to the Reds by Northampton Town during Hodgson’s mercifully brief spell.

A start as good as the one Slot has made should not be taken for granted. It’s a half century since a Liverpool manager last bettered it, after all.