Danny Welbeck's double brought Brighton a deserved 2-1 victory over Liverpool, just days after the Red Devils had a victory over Galatasaray in the Champions League.
Coach Slot's team was missing goalkeeper Alisson Becker, striker Mohamed Salah and the club's record signing, Alexander Isak, before top scorer Hugo Ekitike had to leave the field due to injury in the eighth minute.
This is Liverpool's 10th defeat this season in the Premier League. This result makes Liverpool miss the opportunity to surpass Aston Villa in the standings. They are ranked 5th with 49 points and are being narrowed the gap by rivals behind them such as Everton.
After the match, Arne Slot admitted that the victory was deserved for Brighton and also emphasized that Liverpool's position was not good, no matter what excuse he made.
He said: "The unhappy things started from the preparation for this match, as has happened many times this season. When we played a very good match and thought that we could maintain that form in the next match, or even better, Mo Salah and Alisson Becker were injured.
Playing for not long, Hugo Ekitike also had to leave the field. This has happened many times to us this season and now continues. Another thing that has also happened a lot this season is that the opponent's first chances all lead to goals. But Brighton deserved to win if you look at the second half, because in the first half, I thought it was a balanced match, but in the second half, Brighton was the better team and they deserved to win.
Playing away from Brighton is a difficult match for any team, especially if you are missing a few very important players. Of course, looking at the current standings, this defeat is really heartbreaking and affects us a lot.
According to Arne Slot, striker Hugo Ekitike's injury is partly due to the tight schedule. When asked if there might not be much sympathy for his team after Liverpool spent more than 450 million pounds to buy players, Slot pointed to the players that the club has sold.
“Usually in England, when a club spends 450 million pounds, as we did, it is to add to a squad that is already very strong. However, Liverpool has a different model that not everyone recognizes and understands. In fact, we sold the players for 300 million pounds.
And then, our £150 million contract was never there. That was the first thing. Giovanni Leoni could not play due to injury, that was the second thing. Let's assume we paid less than the money from selling players.
But anyway, no matter how many excuses I make, Liverpool's current result is not good.
