Arne Slot Responds to Michael Owen’s ‘Strange’ Question to Virgil van Dijk After Merseyside derby

Arne Slot has responded to Michael Owen’s "strange" question to Virgil van Dijk following Liverpool’s 1-0 victory in the Merseyside Derby on Wednesday. The Reds claimed a narrow win against their rivals, with Diogo Jota scoring the only goal at Anfield.

Owen, who was working as a pundit for Premier League Productions, interviewed Van Dijk after the match. During their conversation, Owen asked the Dutch defender: "I’m just thinking in terms of the season so far, if you’d have said at the start of the season you were going to win the Premier League, I’m sure people would’ve been over the moon. However, it was building into something really special – how hard was it after a couple of big defeats in cup competitions to get your mind tuned back into the Premier League and to finish the season well?"

Van Dijk was not pleased with the question, responding that "the narrative needs to change" and that, for him, the season was still "looking very special."

Arne Slot has now weighed in on Owen's comments, echoing Van Dijk’s sentiment. Ahead of Liverpool’s upcoming match against Fulham on Sunday, Slot discussed the matter in a press conference. Referring to Owen’s question, Slot said, per the Daily Mail: “Let me understand it right, Virgil was a bit frustrated because it came across as it’s not enough to only win the Premier League?”

He then added, “Michael did play for us didn’t he? So he is aware of the fact that in 35 years we won the league once? There is your answer. If you can win the league with this club then, phew, nothing else matters I would say. If you do it 10 times in a row then I could understand that people say: ‘Oh but you only win the Premier League.’ If [Manchester] City only won the Premier League then I could understand people saying: ‘It’s not a good season for City.’ But if, at this club, you can compete for it and let alone win it, then it is a strange question to ask in my opinion. If Virgil has this opinion as well, then I agree with him.”

Slot continued by discussing the increasing competitiveness of the Premier League. "I think the league is better than it ever was, the strength overall is getting better. I think even Pep (Guardiola) said there will not be a team again as long as he lives that gets more than 100 points and wins the league four times in a row. So many more teams have so many more good players. All clubs, even some who are fighting against relegation, have players who can play for City, for Arsenal, for us, for Chelsea and these types of teams."

He concluded by explaining how the improvement in overall team strength makes achieving points more difficult. "The reason why teams you might expect to have more points don’t have them is because the league has become stronger. That is probably why it is such a compliment for us that we do have those points at the moment."