When a team has struggled as much as this Liverpool team has this season, it can be a little dangerous to quickly buy in to any signs of improvement or upticks in results. There’s always, after all, a risk
of a false dawn. A feat that the team will soon revert to previous form.
Liverpool do, though, have three wins and a pair of draws to show for their last five matches now. It’s their best form since all the way back in August at the very start of the year when they were winning games but not always getting those wins in ways that seemed sustainable.
This recent stretch has seen them play not perfectly but, perhaps, better than they have at any point in the 2025-26 season. Just maybe, then, it’s time to whisper turnaround and to acknowledge that, just maybe, this is a group that is finally getting back on the right track.
“I think we are getting closer and closer to the team I want us to be,” manager Arne Slot reflected at his pre-match press conference ahead of Saturday’s trip to London to take on Tottenham. “That has gone with ups and downs, let’s be completely clear about that.
“For me it makes sense because of all the changes we made during the summer—and we made them on purpose because we thought we needed to. But if I’m completely honest, maybe I didn’t expect it to take as long as it did. Looking back, I think I’ve been too positive.
“Because if you go with a new group where not all of them are completely ready to play every single game 90 minutes in this intensity, you have to adapt. So, it takes maybe a bit of time. And we’ve been a bit unlucky with referee decisions, I’ve said this multiple times.
“Set pieces are another. From almost all the losses we’ve had we’ve conceded a set piece and that shouldn’t influence our results anymore. That’s why we have to improve, so we’re not dependent so much on luck or bad luck because we are in that mix too many times.”
While Liverpool’s season seems to be heading in the right direction of late, opponents Tottenham have gone in the other direction. Having started the season looking like surprise top four contenders, their last five games have seen them win once and earn just four points.
Liverpool now enter the matchweek seventh but level on points with two sides ahead of them only on goal differential and two points back of Chelsea in fourth. Spurs meanwhile have fallen to 11th, four points back of the Reds and six off the Champions League places.
“I think the main thing for us is to build on what we are building on in the last five games,” Slot added. “I think the players are more ready to compete at Premier League intensity as a group. So I think we can expect more from us in the upcoming part of the season.”
