Liverpool manager Arne Slot admitted any talk of a Premier League title challenge was premature after his side’s 3–0 defeat to Manchester City at the Etihad on Sunday.

The heavy loss — Liverpool’s fifth in the league this season, already one more than their entire previous campaign — saw the reigning champions slip to eighth place after 11 games, eight points behind leaders Arsenal and four adrift of City.

“It feels like too many losses,” Slot told reporters. “The last thing I should speak about now is the title race. We need to focus on getting results — one after another — before we can even think about that. The reality is we’re eighth.”

Slot reiterated that the league table becomes meaningful only at the halfway mark.

“I said last season the best time to judge the table is after 38 games, but the next best time is after 19 — when everyone has faced the same opponents. Right now, we need to improve. And that’s obvious.”

Liverpool had arrived in Manchester buoyed by recent wins over Aston Villa and Real Madrid, results that briefly halted a dismal run of six defeats in seven matches across all competitions. But Slot admitted that City were comfortably superior, especially in the opening 45 minutes.

“Everyone is disappointed,” he said. “It was a great start to the week — beating Villa and Madrid — but then you meet Man City, and at the Etihad it’s always difficult. They were by far the better side in the first half.”

The Dutchman also voiced frustration over a disallowed goal by Virgil van Dijk, which could have offered Liverpool a lifeline. Andy Robertson, standing in an offside position, was ruled to have interfered with play as the defender ducked beneath the ball before it crossed the line.

“For me, that is a goal,” Slot argued. “After the game, people showed me City’s goal at Wolves last season — for me, that’s a similar situation. I was surprised; the first thing you do when you score is check the linesman, and it took 14 seconds before he raised his flag.”

That 2023 match saw John Stones score a controversial stoppage-time winner for City after a VAR review overturned an initial offside decision involving Bernardo Silva.

Still, Slot refused to use officiating as an excuse.

“These things didn’t help us,” he said. “But City being 2–0 up at half-time was a fair reflection of the game.”