Arne Slot yet to be TESTED as Liverpool's season starts now

Arne Slot has had an impressive start to life at Anfield. Liverpool are top of the Premier League and Slot became the first head coach to win eight of his nine opening games.

This weekend’s game against a struggling Crystal Palace should see that record extend to nine wins in ten.

It’s all been fairly easy going for Slot, with the only real bumps in the road coming in the form of a surprise loss to Nottingham Forest at Anfield and slow starts against Ipswich and AC Milan in games he went on to comfortably win.

The results so far could see fans getting carried away, but a closer look reveals why Slot shouldn’t be getting too excited with his team just yet.

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Comparing Liverpool’s results so far to the equivalent games last season, Slot’s side are no better off than Jurgen Klopp’s were, despite their position at the top of the league.

Excluding Ipswich Town, who are a newly promoted side, here are the results from this season so far and last season.

This season:

Wolves 1-2 Liverpool

Liverpool 3-0 Bournemouth

Liverpool 0-1 Nottingham Forest

Manchester United 0-3 Liverpool

Liverpool 2-0 Brentford

Last season:

Wolves 1-3 Liverpool

Liverpool 3-1 Bournemouth

Liverpool 3-0 Nottingham Forest

Manchester United 2-2 Liverpool

Liverpool 3-0 Brentford

Liverpool have taken 12 points from a possible 15 this season, compared to 13 in Jurgen Klopp’s final year in charge.

So, on the surface they are actually worse-off than in the equivalent games last season.

HAS SLOT BEEN TESTED?

Liverpool's sole defeat this season has come against the only side that they've played to currently be in the top half of the Premier League table, with their next game against Crystal Palace who are sitting in the relegation zone.

After next week's international break, the fixtures get a LOT tougher for Slot, who will face Chelsea at home, Arsenal away, Brighton at home and Aston Villa away in the Premier League – while also juggling Champions League and Carabao Cup games.

TalkSPORT's Simon Jordan believes Liverpool are yet to be tested under Arne Slot, and we will learn a lot more about where they are in the next month.

"Slot to me has had no tests," Jordan said. "Manchester United are rubbish. Milan are not a great side, they're not the Milan we used to think of – they are nowhere near where they once were before.

"When you put them against their peers, when you put Liverpool in against Manchester City and against Arsenal, let's ask the question then."

WHAT DO THE STATS SAY?

While football is a results game, they tend to only tell part of the story. Liverpool pride themselves on being a data-driven club and have complex models to analyse every aspect of every pass, tackle, shot and save.

xG (expected goals) stats provide a little more context as to how the team are performing so far this season.

According to FBRef, in the five Premier League games excluding Ipswich, Liverpool have amassed 9.7 xG for and 4 xG against. Last season saw Klopp’s side on 14 xG for and 4.6 xG against.

xG stats from FBRef:

This season: 2.5, 1.8, 0.9, 2.0, 2.5 = 9.7 (8 actual goals)

Last season: 3.0, 2.5, 3.2, 3.6, 1.7 = 14 (15 actual goals)

xGa stats from FBRef:

This season: 0.5, 1.4, 0.4, 1.1, 0.6 = 4 (2 actual goals against)

Last season: 1.3, 0.6, 0.4, 0.7, 1.6 = 4.6 (4 actual goals against)

Slot is more concerned with controlling games than Klopp was, and this is shown in the stats. A massive drop-off in xG for is paired with an improvement in xG against.

Liverpool currently sit top of the 'expected points' table as well as the actual table. They have the best xG for AND the best Xg against – so they well and truly deserved their position ahead of Manchester City and Arsenal.

The question remains whether or not they can keep this up when faced with tougher opponents than they've faced so far.