Liverpool boss Arne Slot insists he had no expectations of his side in terms of results.
The Reds have made a superb start under the Dutchman, winning 11 of their first 12 matches in all competitions and topping the Premier League heading into this weekend’s fixtures.
Yet while that may have exceeded the hopes of all but the most optimistic of supporters following the summer departure of Jurgen Klopp, Slot does not look at it that way.
The former Feyenoord manager said ahead of Sunday’s testing trip to Arsenal: “There were no expectations for me.
“It is not like I was on my holiday thinking about after 10 games, how many points would I have.
“The only thing I was thinking was how am I going to try to bring the best from this team – as has been done for so long by Jurgen – and how can we continue that. You don’t think about points.
“For me, the way I think about it, it is about the process we are doing, what we do on a daily basis and that, from my experience up until now, leads to points.
“That is why I didn’t have expectations coming in when it comes to the amount of points for one, two, three or 10 games, but there were expectations from me for the way I wanted to see the team playing. I think that is matching my expectations at the moment.”
One area in which the team have notably improved this term is in defence, with just three goals conceded in their eight Premier League outings.
“There are two reasons why we don’t concede a lot,” said Slot. “One of them is that in almost all games – except one – we dominated and controlled for most of the game.
“It helps if you have the ball and you can rest the defence in order that you don’t then concede, but I also like if we have difficult parts of the game – or a large part of the game against Chelsea – the workrate is incredible. That is something that is very important.
“Then if you combine Virgil (van Dijk) and Ibou (Ibrahima Konate) and the two goalkeepers we have used, these elements are probably why we haven’t conceded that much.”