'It's your words' - Liverpool manager Arne Slot rubbishes Arsenal time-wasting claim

Arne Slot played down concerns that Arsenal could waste time if Mikel Arteta's men find themselves in the lead against Liverpool during Sunday's showdown at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal has been crititized in the past for supposed gamesmanship, with Manchester City's Bernardo Silva slamming the Gunners after a 2-2 draw between the two sides in September.

On that occasion, Arsenal was leading 2-1 when Leandro Trossard was sent off on the stroke of half-time, and Arteta's players were accused of slowing the game down when the game resumed after the interval. City ultimately rescued a point through John Stones deep into stoppage time, but Bernardo was still fuming after the game.

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"There was only one team that came to play football," Bernardo said. "The other came to play to the limits of what was possible to do and allowed by the referee, unfortunately."

However, Slot was not interested in entertaining any such talk as he addressed the press ahead of Sunday's big game. He said: “If I look at Arsenal and City it doesn’t even come to my mind about tactical fouls or dark arts, it only comes to my mind how well they play."

Asked if his players were “streetwise” enough to handle any possible time-wasting or disruptive tactics from Arsenal, Slot responded: “It’s your words that they are implementing those tactics. The only thing I know is that my players are experienced and they know how to handle certain situations. I am not using the word streetwise, I am using the word experienced and you have to cope with if the other team is better than you and how you react in those moments.”

Meanwhile, Slot admitted that his emotions got the better of him on the touchline after he was booked for protesting a decision during Liverpool's win over Chelsea last weekend.

"If I use my common sense, I would say we [managers] are role models," Slot said. "But we are also human beings. We sometimes feel if too many decisions go against you, emotions take the most out of you. We try to be role models. I speak for myself. I try to keep calm but in the Chelsea game, too many important decisions went against my team."