Liverpool are top of the Premier League table by a comfortable distance at the time of writing. They also lead the way after six matches in the UEFA Champions League, and are the only team in that competition with a 100% record this season. That they had a tough draw and have beaten the likes of Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen, plus won away at Milan and RB Leipzig, only makes that feat all the more impressive. They are also in the League Cup semis and, despite having lost 1-0 away at Spurs in the first leg, are clear favourites to make the final.
They breezed through to the FA Cup fourth round recently as well, beating Accrington Stanley 4-0 on home soil and booking a fourth-round clash with Plymouth Argyle, who they will fully expect to beat to make it through to the last 16. Life is looking very good indeed for Arne Slot, his team and Liverpool supporters everywhere… isn’t it?
Well, perhaps not quite as rosy as that all may sound because that victory over fourth-tier minnows Accrington Stanley was the Reds’ only win in their last four matches. Are Liverpool having their first wobble of the Slot era and is it something to worry about? Or will they soon get back to winning ways and go on to land at least one and quite probably two or more pieces of silverware this term?
Liverpool’s Mini Slump

When fans are used to seeing win after win, there is no doubt that the current run of one win in four can rightly be viewed as at least a mini-slump. No team, at this sort of level, wins every game they play and no team ever will. Even in Manchester City’s astonishing treble-winning campaign of 2022/23 they had a relatively poor sequence of results at a similar stage of the season to this.
They lost to Brentford, then beat Leeds, drew with Everton, beat Chelsea and then lost to Man United. Then at the start of February they also lost at Spurs, having also been beaten on the 11th of January by Southampton in the League Cup. On the 22nd of February they drew 1-1 with Leipzig in the UCL too, so they endured an extended sequence where they failed to win seven out of 15 games.
Compared to that run, which came in perhaps the most impressive season of football an English side has ever produced, Liverpool’s current dip hardly even registers. It is, perhaps, simply that the standards set by Slot and his side have been so high that any drop-off is seen as something of a crisis.
Results
FT: Liverpool 2-2 Man Utd
The Reds are made to settle for a share of the spoils#LFC #LIVMUN 🔗https://t.co/uFznY6Nysq
— Liverpool FC News (@LivEchoLFC) January 5, 2025
As said, Liverpool have managed just one win in four and even that was against a side in the fourth tier of English football. But what of the other results? How bad were they really and what do they tell us?
Liverpool 2-2 Man United, 5th January
The rot – and yes we are being ironic with our word choice – set in against Man United. A 2-2 draw was two points unexpectedly dropped in a game where most Man United fans were fearing the worst. Some may have even accepted a 1-0 defeat before kick-off, such was the fear that Liverpool would humiliate them at Anfield.
The Reds came into the fixture fresh from four wins in a row, having hit West Ham for five in their previous game and also won 6-3 at Spurs. In contrast their opponents were showing no signs of improvement under new boss Ruben Amorim and had lost their previous four contests. The last three had been by an aggregate scoreline of 7-0 whilst before those they shipped four in defeat at Spurs.
Viewed through that prism the 2-2 draw can be seen as something of a concern but it should be remembered that Manchester United are still Manchester United. They will always raise their game for a clash at Anfield and having spent about £8.9bn on players (ok, we exaggerate a little), they do have at least some vaguely talented footballers among their ranks.
Next came a 1-0 loss against Tottenham but that was in the EFL Cup and again, Spurs raised their game, perhaps due to the humiliation of the relatively recent 6-3 thumping the Reds had given them. Even so, few Liverpool fans will doubt their side can overturn the deficit in the return at Anfield.
The most recent game of the sequence under discussion came after the FA Cup win over Accrington Stanley and was a 1-1 draw at a raucous City Ground against Nottingham Forest. Forest moved to second in the table after the draw and that position is deserved. They are incredibly well-drilled, have some exciting players and fight for everything, especially at home.
After the match Forest were praised for their defence and their defiance but that is a results-led narrative. Liverpool were easily the better team on the night, especially in the second half where they outperformed Forest on xG (1.52 to 0.09), possession (71% to 29%), shots (14 versus three) and indeed just about every metric you care to assess.
Reds, Relax

All things considered, we would suggest all Liverpool fans should just relax. Back in August, especially after what was deemed a lacklustre transfer window, nobody could have imagined that this season would be going so well. Slot has settled in superbly and the likes of Ryan Gravenberch, Alexis Mac Allister and Cody Gakpo are playing better than ever. Mo Salah is back to his very best and the club are very, very well set for the second half of the season.
They face a tough test in their next game, away at Brentford in the Premier League. The Bees are excellent at home but if Liverpool draw, or even lose, supporters should stay calm. There is a long way to go in the 2024/25 campaign and nobody knows for certain what the future holds. However, Liverpool are looking every inch the best team in the country, if not the world, and we fully expect them to start getting the results we are used to seeing sooner rather than later. Come May, we believe there will be another Premier League trophy and another League Cup in the Anfield silverware collection … and maybe even more than that!