Arne Slot knows Liverpool must evolve to compete with the best - Arsenal offers perfect test

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Arne Slot’s first trip to the Emirates as Liverpool head coach is framed as a key checkpoint in his attempt to evolve the team to compete with the very best, with **Arsenal under Mikel Arteta** presented as the clearest reference point for that journey. The article explains that, just as Jürgen Klopp once had to reshape Liverpool to keep pace with Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, Slot must now steer a similar evolution in response to an Arsenal side that has combined intense pressing with refined positional play and control.

Arteta’s project is described as a multi‑year rebuild built on clear tactical principles, smart recruitment and a gradual shift from chaos‑heavy, transition football to a more **dominant, possession‑based model**. That process is held up as a template for how Liverpool might change under Slot: maintaining aggression and work rate while adding more structure, technical quality and flexibility in build‑up.

Within this context, the piece notes that Liverpool have already shown signs of moving away from the pure “heavy metal” approach of the Klopp peak years, but remain some distance from the level of fluency, control and consistency displayed by Arsenal. The Emirates clash is therefore portrayed less as a title decider and more as a **measure of progress**: a chance to see how far Slot’s ideas have taken hold, how his reshaped side copes against one of Europe’s most complete teams, and which areas of the squad still require upgrading.

Ultimately, the article argues that if Liverpool are to return to the very top, they must embrace a similar long‑term, detail‑driven evolution, using challenging fixtures like Arsenal away as both a benchmark and a learning tool for Slot’s next steps.