I’ve seen Arne Slot change Liverpool needed - Man City and Arsenal should be scared

There were times last season that Liverpool looked too end-to-end and open. And while it is still early days in the Premier League under Arne Slot, it certainly looks like that has changed.

The Reds have not been perfect so far in this campaign — the Anfield defeat to Nottingham Forest will live long in the memory for the wrong reasons — but they have never looked in a great deal of danger. Even going 1-0 down away at AC Milan , there was more than enough time for Liverpool to win convincingly in the end.

Against Wolves, while it took most of the first half for Slot's side to look like an attacking threat, by the time Ibrahima Konate powered home the opening goal, the host — for all that it was well and truly in the game and Liverpool was not playing brilliantly — hadn't really had anything in the way of a clear-cut opportunity. That was reflected in the xG values for the game: Liverpool ended up on 2.54 to Wolves' 0.63.

Konate's error was the only moment that Liverpool looked vulnerable at the back but that is not a style or a system issue but rather an individual mistake. It was one of the few things that the center-back did wrong throughout in an otherwise strong showing, and there is little that a coach can do from the sidelines when a player loses concentration momentarily.

Even when Rayan Ait-Nouri found the back of Alisson Becker's net after the Konate lapse, Mohamed Salah soon popped up with a penalty kick at the other end to ensure that it didn't matter.

Had Konate not made that mistake to give Wolves some hope, Liverpool would have likely seen a way to the three points without a spot kick. Having gone ahead, it was never really under a sustained period of pressure.

For all that Luis Diaz , Cody Gakpo and others have been impressive going forward and Ryan Gravenberch has excelled in midfield, the defensive stability that the rest is built on is a massive positive. If it carries on at the current rate, unlikely as that is, Liverpool will concede fewer than 13 league goals all season — the final figure in 2023/24 was 41.

It will be more than 13 in the end and Slot was keen to point out before his side beat Wolves that Liverpool is yet to face a real test in the Premier League. The sample size is growing, though, and the habit of going a goal down every game, which ultimately hampered the Reds at the end of last season, seems to have been shaken.

Chasing Manchester City and Arsenal — and for now, at least, ahead of them in the standings — that is a big warning sign for potential title rivals. Liverpool appears to have improved dramatically at the back and in terms of controlling matches.

Finishing nine points behind with a defense that leaked more than a goal per game on average last year, Manchester City and Arsenal must be looking on and thinking differently about Liverpool now. While it isn't being widely spoken about as a true contender to finish top, if its defense continues to be this strong, that will simply have to change.